Project turns fishing nets into protection gearA worker prepares old fishing nets before a recycling process to create, among new products, protective gear against the coronavirus disease at the Saint Louis Plas Mold factory amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Ayutthaya province on Tuesday. "If no one bought my fishing nets, they would just pile up like a mountain," says Anan, who goes through about 36 nets every quarter, fishing in the east coast province of Rayong. About 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets end up in the ocean globally every year, becoming "ghost gear," the United Nations says. Thai design company Qualy is buying most of the fishing nets being collected by EJF. "We've sold over 100,000 push sticks already during the coronavirus pandemic," said marketing director Thosaphol Suppametheekulwat.

Source: Bangkok Post July 02, 2020 12:22 UTC