Winter is annual maintenance time for many anglers, and re-spooling with a new line and recycling the old is a common task. Ever thought about what happens once you dispose of the old line in a fishing line recycling tube?
It’s not pretty. Turning fishing lines into new products is labor-intensive, requiring a series of workers to manually comb through, sort, clean, remove hooks and weights, and separate out miles of encrusted debris in an entangled fishing line. So as you pile up a few reels of the line to be recycled this winter, the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water is asking for your ideas on how to help grow the volume of line recycled each year.
Teaming up with fishing tackle company Berkley, the BoatUS Foundation’s Recast & Recycle Contest seeks out new ideas and improvements to the process, new ideas for recycled products, or technology breakthroughs for the current process that will increase the volume of line and soft baits that are recycled. Entry is simple – all you have to do is send a short video or one-page summary explaining your idea. Thirty thousand dollars in prize money is at stake for the three best ideas submitted through May 14, 2021.
“It’s great that anglers recycle,” said BoatUS Foundation Director of Outreach Alanna Keating. “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.”
Judges will add weight to contest submissions that actually work, are practical, innovative, and have the potential to have a significant impact.
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 lines and soft plastics from the end of life to a new beginning. Professionals, amateurs, and students alike are encouraged to apply, as are school teams and groups. Contest entries can be submitted with as little as a link to a video demonstration of the idea or a one-page graphic summary. Videos are limited to 4 minutes.
Contest rules and conditions, details on the current recycling process, and videos on how various plastics and soft baits are recycled can be found at the Recast & Recycle website BoatUS.org/Contest.
About the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water
The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water is a national leader promoting safe, clean, and responsible boating. Funded primarily by donations from the more than 700,000 members of Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS), the nonprofit provides innovative educational outreach directly to boaters and anglers with the aim of reducing accidents and fatalities, increasing stewardship of America’s waterways, and keeping boating safe for all. A range of boating safety courses – including 36 free state courses – can be found at BoatUS.org/Courses.
About Pure Fishing
Pure Fishing, Inc. is a leading global provider of fishing tackle, lures, rods, and reels with a portfolio of brands that includes Abu Garcia, All-Star, Berkley, Fenwick, Fin-Nor, Greys, Hardy, Hodgman, Johnson, JRC, Mitchell, Penn, Pflueger, Sebile, Shakespeare®, SpiderWire, Stren, Ugly Stik, and Van Staal.
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media