Stakeholder engagement report: An assessment of potential options for improved management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear

Executive summary

End-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear is generated when gear comes to the end of its commercially useful or usable life. It is estimated that approximately 4,300 tonnes of plastic waste is generated annually from Scotland’s aquaculture sector, and 700 tonnes from Scotland’s fisheries. There are few options for dealing with this waste, and most goes into storage or to landfill. Items that remain in storage will degrade over time, risking microplastic pollution, and a lack of waste management options also increases the risk of marine litter.

The Scottish Government has made commitments to improve the waste management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear, through the British-Irish Council, OSPAR, and through actions included in the Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland. As part of these commitments the Scottish Government carried out a stakeholder engagement exercise, with the aim of informing policy development on this issue.

Based on work conducted in collaboration with the rest of the UK, a short-list of potential options for dealing with end-of-life gear was drawn up for discussion with industry. These six options were: a regional facility for gear collection and processing; research and development funding for gear makers and designers; a waste management certification scheme for harbours and businesses; gear collection and processing facilities at harbours; localised solutions for gear collection and recycling targets, specific to individual harbours; and a deposit return scheme for aquaculture gear.

The intention of the engagement exercise was to gather opinions from all parts of the fishing and aquaculture sectors, as well as from port authorities, gear manufacturers, recycling companies, local authorities, and the waste sector. A series of in-person drop-in events were planned at a variety of harbour locations, both on the mainland and on islands. The six potential options were presented at these events and discussed with participants, who were invited to vote for the option they deemed most feasible and leave comments about the merits or drawbacks of each. An online survey was also run, to enable as many as possible from industry to have their say.

In total, 97 individuals took part in the exercise, with 86 attending the in-person events, and 11 responding to the online questionnaire. The option with the largest percentage support (60%) was the regional hub facility for collecting and processing gear. This was followed by the option for facilities at harbours for collecting and processing gear, with 18%. Both of these were presented as options which would have staff to clean and dismantle gear, ready for recycling, which many of the attendees thought would be viable and could provide local employment.

This engagement exercise reaffirmed research conclusions regarding the barriers to current waste management, and the industry interest in improvement. Research has demonstrated there is potentially enough capacity in Scotland to recycle the annual arisings of plastic end-of-life gear from both the fishing and aquaculture sectors, should the pre-processing of the material be to a high enough standard. Increased rates of recycling from these sectors, combined with other improvements, would all contribute to reducing the risk of marine litter and microplastic pollution from these sources, and would enable these industries to better contribute to Scotland’s circular economy. Subject to available resource, the Scottish Government intends to run a short-term trial of the regional gear collection and processing facility option.