Risacca
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
Risacca is a line of fashion and sustainable design products ethically produced,born from the regeneration of fishing nets. Community products, made by fishermen and artisans, which activate processes of reuse and recycling of discards from the fishing industry and of plastics recovered from the sea, making new opportunities for young people and craftsmen and regenerating the social and cultural fabric by creating a sensitive community that participates in the protection of the marine ecosystem.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Every year between 500,000 and a million tons of ghost nets are abandoned in the seas all over the world. It is estimated that ghost nets make up up to 10% of all marine litter and it takes about 600-800 years for the nets to decompose naturally.
Risacca takes place in Mazara del Vallo (Italy, Sicily, TP): Mazara is known for the trade in fresh fish: up until 10 years ago was the third largest port in Europe. In recent years the fishing industry has experienced a serious socio-economic crisis, witnessing a decrease in the fleet -from about 500 to about 100 vessels- resulting in a drastic increase in unemployment (+30%).
The background to this social drama is the use since the 70s of plastic materials that do not have a clear regulation on disposal, becoming a burden on the economies of fishermen who are forced to take on the charge of disposal or to resort to illegal methods. In this context and following a close dialogue with local fishermen, the Risacca project was born.
Risacca is a line of fashion products and sustainable design ethically produced. Risacca project is structured in three phases:
- Production of a line of fashion products, coastal hiking and urban trekking bags, resulting from the regeneration and recovery of exhausted nets, using a traditional technique of repairing fishermen’s nets;
- Regeneration a space in the port’s neighborhood by creating a community laboratory of research and innovation on circular economy;
- Recycling wastes from the fishing industry and the plastic recovered at sea, in collaboration with national partners and through Precious Plastic and digital fabrication machineries.
Risacca meets four of the 17 objectives of sustainable development: "8 decent work and economic growth", "12 responsible consumption and production", "13 acting for the climate", "14 underwater life".
Key objectives for sustainability
In the report of "Ghost Gear: The Abandoned Fishing Nets Haunting Our Oceans", every year more than 640 thousand tons of plastic material used in commercial fishing is thrown into the sea. A recent study on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch revealed that the pile of waste located in the Pacific Ocean is made of 46% of fishing nets. In 2018, it was estimated that up to 650,000 marine animals are killed each year by ghost nets.
Illegal disposal is facilitated by the lack of discipline in waste management: fishing nets are not assigned a EWC code (European Waste Catalogue), which makes it difficult for fishermen to be able to dispose of it properly, take charge of disposal is often too expensive for small businesses and often unsuitable methods are used to get rid of the waste.
The fishing industry in Mazara del Vallo produces about 10.000 kg of plastic waste in just one year.
We intend to create a community lab of technological innovation and research for the regeneration of all plastic wastes from the fishing industry through a systemic approach summarized in 5 R:
Recover
Risacca intends to intervene directly on the management and disposal of fishing nets, thus avoiding the ghost nets phenomenon;
Repair
Through the artisanal techniques of fishermen, it is possible to repair any perforations in the nets to make them suitable for an unconventional uses such as the production of bags and other objects;
Regenerate
Once recovered, the nets go through a decontamination process (washing, bleaching) so that they can be reused;
Reuse
70% of regenerated nets will be shaped and woven for the production of bags, accessories and other products;
Recycle
The remaining 30% consisting of shreds, production wastes and the plastic recovered from the sea will be recycled through partnerships with national companies and through machinery for the recycling of plastic, at local level creating products that can be reused in the fisheries sector and for coastal experience.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The first collection of Risacca products is a line of durable bags, light and versatile, foldable, suitable for coastal excursions, products from the sea to the sea, but also for nature excursions, urban trekking and everyday life, co-created with local fishermen and artisans.
Products are designed adopting and renewing a traditional technique of repairing nets, passed from generation to generation: thanks to this artisanal technique bags and accessories with nets will always be different to one another in color and texture, unique and unrepeatable pieces, adapting wastes and shreds no longer usable for fishing.
In Risacca’s products the shape follows the function, but the function is not only to contain and transport objects but to contain and carry a message of sustainability, inclusion, social and environmental redemption and to contain and transport the story of one of the oldest human activities, fishing, with all the criticality that brings with it in its contemporary evolution, but also the history of a territory, of a context and a community from which it comes, and the history of an ancient technique that can thus continue to be handed down.
Supporting the Risacca project means supporting an initiative to safeguard marine ecosystems, generating a sense of belonging to a local and international community:
Risacca supports local crafts, fragile subjects, tells the stories about fishermen, sea and the city of Mazara facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experience between national and international supporters, visitors and locals by building partnerships with international organizations that support the protection of marine ecosystems (Healthy seas, WWF, Greenpeace, 4oceans...).
Buying Risacca means supporting our cause of protecting the seas and the social fabric and their biodiversity, respecting ecosystems and helping people in difficulty.
Key objectives for inclusion
For the past 10 years the port of Mazara has been abandoned. The socio-economic crisis has caused a reduction in the fleet, which has gone from about 500 to about 100 fishing vessels, resulting in a drastic increase in unemployment and a decline in related income: from ten years to now, is estimated that 3,100 people have lost their jobs and the entire sector has suffered a recession in the market value of 30%. In the fishing industry the classic generational turnover has no longer taken place and the sector is collapsing. Risacca wants to contribute to put an emphasis on the topic, restoring charm to the ancient traditional techniques, bringing to Mazara and the port the creative and scientific capital establishing high levels of innovation.
Risacca aims to create new job opportunities for local workers and fragile subjects in the Mazara area (young unemployed, craftsmen, migrants, disabled) in collaboration with other organizations pursuing a social purpose, generating a new source of income for fishing companies on the recovery and recycling of waste and plastic collected at sea.
Nets and other plastic materials, now seen as waste, will become a new opportunity for the fisheries sector that will be able to diversify its offer. We aim to generate up to 8 new jobs in the first 2 years:
3 artisans (2 fishnets, 1 tailor/a);
3 operators involved in the recovery and selection of plastic and ghost nets on vessels;
2 operators for transport, storage and cleaning of recovered networks.
Then, the community lab dedicated to the recycling of plastic inside the port will be presented as an opportunity for research and experimentation for young people, designers or experts and creative and as a training center through meetings, events, training courses with schools and associations aiming at the creation of a community involved, conscious and sensitive to the theme of recycling and protection of marine ecosystems.
Innovative character
Circularity:
Risacca is an innovative product in the circular economy: it recovers fishing nets directly from companies in the fisheries sector, detects an output, normally not easy to dispose of, and transforms it into raw material for the production of fashion and design products.
Risacca is entirely circular: the bags are designed to be completely disassembled at the end of its lives, deprived of any metal components (carabiners, belts...), and be entirely recycled within the laboratory, transformed into new recyclable objects, in a long-term sustainability loop.
Development of the local economy at Km 0:
The regeneration process will be carried out entirely in the city of Mazara del Vallo: cleaning, treatments, bleaching and dyeing will be carried out by companies based in the area, minimizing movements, transports, avoiding the use of chemical agents.
Social innovation:
Armor (weaving of nets) is a technique handed down from generation to generation by fishermen. In the last 10 years few young people continue the activity of fathers and grandparents, and these techniques are likely to disappear: Risacca aims at the enhancement of these traditional techniques: the bags are assembled by fishermen and the knots and joints are diligently highlighted in the design to bring attention to a relevant social theme on the territory.
