AI Representation: Discarded fishing nets cause pollution. Image credits: Chatgpt Ben Kneppers and David Stover first met as roommates in Sydney, Australia, bonding over a shared passion for surfing; friend and product designer Kevin Ahearn later joined them, and in 2013 the trio launched Net Positiva in Chile to collect waste fishing nets from artisanal fishing communities along the coast. Kneppers had already been living in Chile and working as an environmental consultant on wild-caught fishing initiatives for the Chilean government. He observed that fishermen had no facilities to dispose of old nets, so the nets were thrown into harbors, dumped at sea, or burned on beaches. Net Positiva thus became the first program in Chile devoted specifically to the collection and recycling of waste fishing nets, paying fishermen per kilogram of nets they otherwise would have discarded, as described in Patagonia’s reporting on its partnership with Bureo. The project received seed money from the Chilean government’s Start‑Up Chile initiative and from IDEA, Northeastern University’s venture accelerator, according to Northeastern University reporting on Bureo.Bureo collected 10 tonnes of fishing nets in its first year In its first year, Net Positiva collected about 10 tonnes of abandoned fishing nets in Chile, growing to 15 tonnes the following year as the program expanded to 17 collection points along the Chilean coast, according to co-founder Ben Kneppers’ account to France 24’s Observers. Fishing equipment, including abandoned fishing nets, constitutes 10% of all plastic debris in the oceans, a massive problem that forced the founders to target the nets specifically.The first Bureo skateboard was made from recycled fishing nets As per the coverage of the launch, retrieved nets were shipped to a partner recycling facility, where they were shredded, re‑pelletized and molded into Bureo’s first product, a cruiser skateboard called the Minnow. The aforementioned France24 Observers piece explains that each skateboard is made from roughly two square meters of net, a substantial amount for a single product, illustrating just how much reclaimed material even one skateboard company can put to use from what fishermen haul in weekly. The company chose its name, ‘Bureo,’ from Mapudungun, the language of Chile’s Mapuche people, in which the word means ‘the waves,’ according to the founders’ own account in France 24’s Observers series.Patagonia invested in Bureo in 2014 However, the early success of Bureo brought other investors, aside from their initial accelerator programs, into the fold. As mentioned in Patagonia’s own reporting on the investment, an outdoor clothing company named Patagonia funded Bureo in 2014 through its Tin Shed Ventures fund, which focuses on entrepreneurs addressing environmental problems. They partnered with Bureo in making hat brims, stiffeners and other textile products using NetPlus material.Net Positiva expanded to 62 fishing communities Net Positiva has certainly grown well beyond the 17 ports at which it initially operated. Conservation International’s more recent figures state that Bureo is now collecting discarded nets from 62 fisheries and fishing communities, making a supply chain that Conservation International claims is striving for full traceability and full recyclability. The material is marketed by Conservation International as NetPlus to other firms and not just used by Bureo in their skateboards and sunglasses, among other products. According to the Times of San Diego, the figures were tied to a 2022 collaboration with the conservation organization Wildcoast to expand the recycling program into California fishing communities for the first time, after the network had grown to about 50 ports in South America.
A Mute Swan built a nest using plastic garbage. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
NetPlus expanded beyond skateboards and Chile Since then, NetPlus has been used in a broader array of products than was ever anticipated when the idea was conceived in 2013, ranging from sunglasses, water bottle cages, ergonomic task chairs, a Jenga Ocean board game, to Patagonia’s textiles. As stated in the mentioned Conservation International case study, its investment, worth $500,000 through its CI Ventures investment arm, has been made with the objective of duplicating Bureo’s efforts to recycle old fishing nets in Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, setting the goal of accumulating 4,000 tons of nets by 2026. Bureo also raised money in a Series B round led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, with Mirova saying the investment would help Bureo upcycle more than 13,000 metric tons of end-of-life fishing nets as it expands to new fisheries in Latin America, California and Asia, more than a decade after three friends began buying back nets from Chilean fishermen.