The material from the sea「amuca®」

Video

Description

We purchase discarded fishing gear that is "industrial waste" as a "resource" and recycle it into nylon of the same quality as virgin material.

From there, we create new products, and when they have served their purpose, they are recycled again.

The amuca® nylon that lives with the sea is a way of eliminating worthless items from the world.

Story

Our project, which started in Kesennuma, one of the best port towns in Japan facing Sanriku, one of the three major fishing grounds in the world, is a challenge to find future resources from the sea. Did you know that fishery-related litter accounts for 59.5% of the marine plastic litter that washes ashore on Japan's beaches on a mass basis?

If all we want to do is clean the oceans, we can eliminate the fishing industry itself. But we do not want that. People will continue to cross the sea, live in the sea, and eat the sea. The workings of people and the workings of the sea. Can we improve the relationship between the two? We are taking on the challenge of creating a system to achieve this.

Fishing equipment used by fishermen who risk their lives in the sea to catch fish is not considered “waste” but is recycled as “raw materials”. We buy up discarded fishing gear, recycle it into materials to create new products, and when it has served its purpose, we recycle it back into circulation.

Although discarded fishing gear is often viewed negatively as a source of marine pollution, we believe that we can turn it into something valuable by looking at the potential that lies within it. Through this project, we will realize our vision of “creating a world where there is nothing we don't want.” Through this project, we will realize our vision of “creating a world where there is nothing we don't want.

Link

• https://amuca.world/

Images

Judge’s Comments

Gregory Constantine

Co-founder and CEO of Air Company

TideTurner Prize

amuca® champions an upcycling process that—at face value—already exists. The recycling of ocean plastics is not necessarily a new innovation, nor is the recycling of waste fishing equipment, but it is their unique approach to attacking the problem at its source that offers the most novel solution. Working proactively and directly with fisherman and communities that rely primarily on fishing as a source of income, amuca® fosters direct relationships with key industry stakeholders to both educate them on the environmental impacts due to negligent practices, while establishing critical business incentives that give fisherman an alternative way of disposing of their waste equipment.

What makes amuca® stand out is:
Principally their adherence to the 3 P’s; they have created a proven product that impacts People on both ends of a complex and fraught supply chain, their product provides tangible alternatives to both practices and production methods across both the fishing and garment industry when applied at scale fundamentally improve the Planet’s ocean biodiversity, and the Profit of their product’s implementation can be seen both financially and ecologically as it creates premium fiber alternatives that could disrupt industries while creating a healthier ocean that fosters healthier growth in fish populations.

But fundamentally, it is their proactive method of operation that separates them from their comparable counterparts who rely heavily on recycling fishing industry or ocean plastic after it has already entered the water. amuca® has adopted an active posture to create measurable change, rather than the prevailing passive efforts.

amuca® represents an ethos that should be more widely adopted in order to create tangible climate solutions, their product is proven alternative that has the potential to impact a myriad of industries that are the largest contributors to environmental harm, but most critically, their product creates the truest form of a circular economy by connecting with individuals at both ends of a products life. The sourcing of materials directly with fisherman is critical, but creating products that consumers can hold in their hand and understand their role in creating change creates true advocacy and ambassadors for a cause.

Sachiko Hirosue

Osaka Namari-Suzu Seirensho Co., Ltd. President and CEO

Preventative Protection of the Oceans Prize

This project contributes to the biocircular economy by preventing the plastic fishing nets from entering the oceans by collecting unwanted fishing nets directly from fishermen, and thus indirectly keeping sea inhabitants from getting tangled in these abandoned nets. By focusing on a specific category of ocean plastics, they are able to focus their recycling process, and their re-use market. We cannot stop using plastics without replacement materials in all applications. Ocean plastic waste cannot be described as a monolith. This is a relevant and preventative solution, and would love for it to roll out to all parts of the world. The project ensures the appeal to a greater mass using traceability tags, with a message to the next consumer. If collections networks are considered, then how to scale-up? Will it be to centralize or decentralize the process? Collecting nets that have sunk into the oceans would be wonderful if possible to consider.