Seasoned anglers know that wintertime is time for maintenance. Re-spooling with new line and recycling the old is a task that occurs annually for anglers. Year after year, the amount of fishing line disposed is increasing as the amount of boaters and fishers increase. Once fishing line is recycled, it is typically turned into new products.
The process of turning old fishing line into new products is typically a long, hard process. It is extremely labor intensive and requires a series of workers to manually comb through, sort, clean, remove hooks and weights, and separate out miles of debris in entangled fishing lines. As anglers dispose of their fishing lines this year, the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water is looking to anglers for a new solution on how to help grow the volume of line recycled each year.
The Recast & Recycle Contest is seeking out new ideas and improvements to apply to this process, new ideas for recycled products, and technology breakthroughs for the current process, in hopes that more line and soft baits will be recycled in the future.
Alanna Keating, the Director of the BoatUS Foundation said “It’s great that anglers recycle. Now we need to ask for help with scaling up recycling with a greater volume of line, whether it’s a time- and labor-saving process improvement or creating a new market to fully sustain recycling efforts.”
While the incentive of increasing recycling is enough of an award to enter the contest, the cash prizes are also very enticing. The first-place prize is $15,000, second place receives $10,000, and $5,000 will be awarded for third place! Contest submissions can address any part of the process (or multiple parts) of taking discarded fishing line and soft plastics from end of life to a new beginning. The contest is a great opportunity to open your mind and think about how you can win cash while saving the planet. Judges will add weight to contest submissions that actually work, are practical, innovative, and have the potential to have a significant impact.
The deadline to enter the contest is May 14th, 2021. You can read more details about the contest and enter your submission here.
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