The Challenge

Sotenäs is a small coastal municipality in Sweden with around 9,000 inhabitants. Fishing is the primary industry and it is home to the second largest fish auction in the country. The municipality also homes three of Sweden’s major seafood processing plants (Marthinson, 2022). Tourism plays a key role in the local economy, with the population swelling to over 50,000 each summer (Charter & Whitehead, 2023). Both fishing and tourism rely on healthy seas and clean environments. Yet, Sotenäs faces significant challenges from marine litter and waste generated by the fishing industry.

This local issue mirrors a global crisis. While plastics have delivered clear benefits - being lightweight, durable, and versatile for many industrial and everyday applications - their widespread use has also created severe environmental challenges. Plastic production has surged in recent years, driving climate change and harming marine ecosystems. Global plastic production now exceeds 450 million tonnes annually (Ritchie, Samborska & Roser, 2023). From extraction to disposal, plastics generate large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In 2019 alone, plastics accounted for 1.8 billion tonnes of GHG emissions - about 3.4% of global emissions (OECD, 2024) and every minute, the equivalent of a garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters the ocean, threatening marine life (Tsydenova & Patil, 2021).

A Circular Solution

The Sotenäs Marine Recycling Centre (SMRC) is Sweden’s first facility dedicated to marine recycling. It was established in 2018 through a partnership between Sotenäs municipality and local fishers, as part of Symbioscentrum - an organisation promoting industrial symbiosis in the region (Charter & Whitehead, 2023).

SMRC collects, separates, and processes discarded fishing gear and marine litter, including "ghost gear"- fishing equipment such as nets, lines, or traps that has been lost, abandoned, or discarded yet continues to capture and kill fish or other marine animals. SMRC sorts metals and different plastic types such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide, and PET for reuse, recycling, or upcycling. Due to its success, SMRC expanded nationally in 2020 through the Fiskereturen project, creating around 10 collection hubs in fishing ports across Sweden. Fishing gear from these locations is trucked to SMRC for processing (Charter & Whitehead, 2023).

SMRC worked with authorities to prepare for the European Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for fishing gear, which came into effect in January 2025 (Charter & Whitehead, 2023). The centre also offers testing services and is developing new circular products from waste fishing gear and marine plastics through its innovation testbed, Testbed Ocean Waste (TOW) (Charter & Whitehead, 2023).

Climate Impact

Previously, most clean polymers collected by SMRC were exported to Plastix Global in Denmark for recycling into pellets for use by European and international industries (Charter & Whitehead, 2023). Today, more polymers are reused locally in Sweden, reducing resource loss from export and increasing the availability of recycled materials. This shift lowers reliance on imported and virgin polymers.

In 2022, the SMRC collected 152 tonnes of used fishing gear (Torbäck, 2023). About 60 - 80% of the collected gear was recycled, 5 - 10% reused, and the remainder that was unsuitable for recycling or reuse was sent for energy recovery (Torbäck, 2023). Recycling one tonne of plastic saves approximately 16.3 barrels of oil or 5,774 kilowatt hours of electricity (UNDP, 2022), meaning SMRC’s efforts generate significant environmental savings.

SMRC also creates green local jobs through the municipality’s work-training programme (Charter & Whitehead, 2023). Trainees help separate and sort fishing gear and beach plastic, as well as clean municipal beaches and coastal areas (Charter & Whitehead, 2023).

Replicability

Discarded fishing gear and marine plastic waste are global problems, especially in coastal regions with limited recycling infrastructure. Globally, only about 9% of plastic waste is recycled; the majority is either incinerated (approximately 34%), landfilled (around 40%), or improperly disposed of into the environment (Wu et al., 2025).

Replicating the SMRC model successfully requires two critical elements: infrastructure to collect and process the nets, and a market to buy the resulting recycled material.

While the infrastructure gap remains significant, a growing number of companies are proving that a robust market for marine plastics exists. By treating waste gear as a valuable feedstock rather than trash, these organizations are driving demand:

• OceanЯ (Ireland), a Cork-based apparel company, produces garments from marine plastic waste and has diverted over 1.5 million plastic bottles from oceans and landfills.

  
  

• Waterhaul (UK) recovers and recycles marine plastics, including ghost gear, into traceable, purpose-made polymer products used in injection moulding.

  
  

• Bureo (Chile/US) collects discarded fishing nets and recycles them into NetPlus nylon pellets for use in the products of brands such as Nike & Patagonia.

  
  

• Patagonia (USA) are an outdoor clothing pioneer incorporating recycled plastics and collaborating with companies like Bureo to use discarded fishing nets to make high end outdoor clothing.