The Pitch;
The plastics contained in used fishing nets are a valuable raw material. They shouldn't be thrown away after one use.
Fishy Filaments wants to help by getting its hands dirty and making long term change for the better a reality rather than an aspiration.
We want to recycle marine plastics locally, by doing so capture the whole value of those materials for the local economy rather than burning it, burying it or exporting it.
We have the idea. We've proven the technology can work. We've built 'The Network' on the ground.
As a start-up we don't have the ready cash needed to take the next step and prove that the business works.
But as a crowd you do !
If you believe that is worth trying to establish a local plastic recycling capacity in Cornwall, one with both a social and environmental conscience, then we ask that you help us get to the next stage.
Some details;
We're working with the support of Fishing for Litter (South West) and The Newlyn Pier and Harbour Commissioners, with the aim of taking both caught marine litter and end-of-life fishing nets, processing them locally and producing a valuable hi-tech material for the fast-growing 3D printing sector.
The project has already demonstrated a world first (harbourside nylon gill nets to a 3D printed form) and gained valuable understanding of the science and engineering of net recycling.
The ultimate aim is to go into self-sustaining production, securing supplies of used fishing gear from around the county, and maybe further, making local hires and selling the 3D printing filament to a national or possibly global market. For Fishy Filaments a sustainable business is one that is self-supporting as well as being socially and environmentally responsible.
However before we can get to that full scale roll-out, there remains a phase of up-sizing and product testing that needs to be done. It is this advanced feasibility study that we are asking for help with. To complete it the R&D kit that we've used so far needs to be replaced by bigger and better production machinery.
The £5000 target is sufficient to buy the professional-quality equipment necessary to produce a testable product and construct demo pieces from that product.
Technically we've proven the process. Now we need to prove that a business can be built on it.
Rewards
Fishy Filaments is offering a range of pledge options, some of which include 3D printed plastic items as rewards. These rewards are made from PLA, a bioplastic whose raw materials are cornstarch or milk. We have conducted independent tests to confirm that the PLA used does indeed degrade over time.
Given the nature of the issues surrounding marine plastics we have also given pledgees the option to NOT recieve a plastic item, even one that we feel is appropriate, and we respect that choice.
Our rewards include;
3D printed mirror mascots (~10cm long)
3D printed key fobs (~7cm long)
These items were produced by Fishy Filaments in Cornwall using an open source design posted on Thingiverse by StevenDuval (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1360291).
