By Zoe Scott-Green
Fishing for Litter has operated in the UK since 2005 and is recognised as the primary mechanism enabling fishermen to remove marine litter from UK seas. The scheme operates across 70 harbours, with over 700 fishing vessels registered and more than 3,250 tonne of marine litter recovered. FFL has proven highly effective at supporting the retrieval of passively fished marine litter including ghost gear, providing a trusted route for fishermen to land waste responsibly at no additional expense to themselves. However, while FFL facilitates retrieval, it does not in itself resolve the challenge of end-of-life gear recycling.
Abandoned, lost an
d discarded fishing gear, including end-of-life rope from wild fisheries and aquaculture, is a contributor to marine plastic pollution and entanglement risk in Scottish waters. These impacts are significant for large and vulnerable megafauna, including cetaceans and basking sharks. As fishing gear degrades, it also contributes to the generation of secondary microplastics, creating long-term environmental pressures that persist beyond the operational life of the gear itself.
While Scotland has begun transitioning towards safer fishing practices—notably the use of sinking or leaded groundlines in creel fisheries to reduce entanglement risk—there remains no clear national framework governing what happens to fishing gear when it reaches the end of its operational life. In the absence of defined pathways, gear that is no longer fit for use often becomes a disposal problem for coastal and island communities. On Skye during December 2025, FFL overcame this problem creating the Skye Fisheries Recycling Coalition—a pilot project in response to this systemic gap, testing whether collaboration between fishermen, aquaculture companies, harbour authorities, local government, and specialist recyclers could overcome these barriers.
The pilot focused on the coordinated collection, consolidation, and recycling of rope from FFL harbour bins, wild fisheries and aquaculture companies. Registered FFL harbours in the area included in the pilot were Kyle of Lochalsh, Kyleakin, and Portree. Rope was contributed from creel fishermen at Portree, Broadford, Armadale and Dunvegan fishing for lobster, crab and prawns in The Minch, south Skye and the Small Isles. All materials were stored at Portree Recycling Centre before being shipped to Waterhaul – a specialist recycler in marine polymers.
9,010 kg of rope was recovered, proving that when clear and accessible recycling pathways exist, communities will engage, industries will participate, and environmental impact is measurable. The primary barrier to effective end-of-life gear management is not a lack of willingness at a local level, but the absence of structured, supported recycling routes. The project demonstrates that practical circular-economy solutions can be delivered at working coastal scale in remote island contexts.
Follow @fishing_for_litter_uk on Instagram for updates of our next rope recycling collaborations with Waterhaul. Products made from Skye rope should be available to purchase on the Waterhaul website from March: www.waterhaul.co
9 tonne of end of life rope is loaded by Highland Council staff for recycling. Photo: Dan Milner