The ocean accumulates waste in all forms. Much of the waste does not break down, which presumably makes the ocean the world’s largest landfill. Plastic from the fishing industry is a disaster. Discarded nets and ropes end up in landfills or incinerators instead of being reused or recycled. Or even worse – it ends up in the sea where it is both difficult and expensive to retrieve it again. The Interreg project Blue Circular Economy has done something about it. Read Source Article The post The Ocean – the World’s Biggest Garbage Dump? appeared first on Blue Circular Economy ..read more

And that’s a wrap! A happy team (pictured) after a successful closing conference of the BCE-project in Ålesund on March 29th  (fotograf: Børge Sandnes) The post Conference Close for the BCE-project appeared first on Blue Circular Economy ..read more

On 25 March 2021, Blue Circular economy partners in Greenland hosted a free online seminar about marine plastics in Greenland and recycling opportunities for discarded fishing gear. The seminar was extremely well attended, with participants from across the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) region and further afield. Presentations The first presentation came from Dr. Neil James of the Environmental Research Institute at the UHI’s North Highland College. Neil gave an update on the amazing work being done by citizen scientists and researchers via the Birds & Debris project ..read more

Blue Circular Economy held a free online research seminar on 4 March 2021. The seminar featured presentations from researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Copies of the slides used as part of these presentations can be found by clicking the links below: Circular Economy through optimization-based integration of closed-loop and open-loop supply chains – A case analysis of the waste fishing gear in Norway | Hossein Arshad (PhD Student, NTNU) Circular Business Model – An exploratory study of the logistics processes ..read more

Tackling Marine Litter in the Arctic Region Are you interested in tackling marine litter, protecting wildlife, or generating new economic opportunities via the circular economy? Blue Circular Economy invites you to attend Marine Plastic Waste in Greenland and Recycling Opportunities for Discarded Fishing Gear. This free seminar will take place online on 25 March 2021 at 18:00 GMT   News from the Arctic The seminar will feature presentations from Qeqqata municipality in western Greenland, Wageningen Economic Research, Technical University of Denmark (ARTEK), Univer ..read more

As part of its ongoing efforts to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) working within fishing gear recycling solutions to attain greater market reach, Blue Circular Economy will present a free online research seminar on 4 March 2021. The seminar will feature a number of presentations from students and researchers at NTNU and DTU who will share some of their most recent findings, and the presentation schedule is as follows: Thursday 4 March 2021 11:45 GMT (12:45 CET) – 13:15 GMT (14:15 GMT) *times below are given in GMT 11:45      Circular Economy through optimization-b ..read more

Photo by Nick Kane on Unsplash   Below is a brief round-up of news items from around the web relevant to the themes of the Blue Circular Economy (BCE) project.   Tackling Ghost Gear in Nova Scotia An estimated 33,000 fishing nets are lost in selected European fisheries annually due to bad weather conditions, gear conflict, and ocean currents. Though some of this material is recovered by fishers who come across it at sea, much is lost to the vagaries of the ocean, drifting through the waves as so-called ‘ghost gear’. The problem is exacerbated because plastic pollution can travel tho ..read more

Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash The Blue Circular Economy (BCE) international conference, Transforming Waste Fishing Gear into Business Opportunities, took place on 5 October 2020. Like many of this year’s events, the existence of pandemic-related movement restrictions led to the event being held in a webinar format.   Chaired by Professor Martin Charter of the UK’s University for the Creative Arts (UCA), the conference featured presentations on a diverse range of topics including the EU policy context surrounding the use of waste fishing gear, practical lessons in the retrieving an ..read more

Thanks once again to all those who voted for Blue Circular Economy (BCE) to win the Public Choice Award at Regiostars 2020. This year’s award was won by Time is Now for Change, a wonderful project based in the cities of Alytus (Lithuania) and Elk (Poland) aimed at working with and supporting at-risk youth in their shared border region. This project did extremely well getting 8,300 of the more than 33,000 votes cast in the competition, and you can view the winner’s Regiostars video here. In BCE’s category Circular Economy for a Green Europe, the award went to Cool Food, an ..read more

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming international conference on the topic of Transforming Waste Fishing Gear into Business Opportunities being organised by the UK’s Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) within the Blue Circular Economy (BCE) project. The event is also supported by the European Commission, Global Ghost Gear Initiative, and Innovation Centre Iceland. This conference will take the form of a complimentary webinar and will highlight the emerging policy environment in relation to marine litter, explore issues related to the circular design of fishing gear, and will p ..read more