A recent graduate from the product design program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond is working on keeping fishing nets from being discarded by recycling them into useable products, such as cups.
For her final project in the program, Sherry Chang experimented with polyethylene fishing nets by melting the material at different temperatures from 650 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chang then researched manufacturing methods to test the commercial viability of using the melted nets to form products.
She successfully used thermoforming, casting, and compression molding to create cups out of discarded fishing nets.
“I hope manufacturers will see recycled fishing nets as a marketable alternative material, thereby reducing pollution in our oceans and preserving marine life,” said Chang.
Chang’s research is part of the Our Coastal Connection exhibit at Britannia Heritage Shipyards.
A graphic representation of her work, alongside many other KPU graphic design students’ ocean conservation projects, is on display to the public in the Seine Net Loft building until May 1, 2018.
More than 640,000 tonnes of commercial fishing gear is abandoned, lost or discarded in oceans annually.
Lost or ghost-fishing gear, noted KPU, kills 100,000 marine mammals every year, and more than 135 different species of ocean life are caught and die in the discarded nets.
The same manufacturing methods could be used to create a host of other products.
“Product design is, in big part, the development of solutions to problems,” said Victor Martinez, an instructor at KPU’s Wilson School of Design.
“I’m always looking to provide real-world problems for our students to tackle, and the issue of lost fishing nets and their impact on the environment seemed like an ideal challenge.”
Chang’s research project was inspired by a class visit from a representative of the Steveston Harbour Authority, who briefed a group of product design students on the challenges of the lost fishing nets and the impacts they have on the fishing community and the environment.
“I’m proud of Sherry and our other students’ approach to designing a series of solutions to this global problem,” added Martinez.
“We were very happy to have a chance to work with our local community and contribute, in a small way, to their ongoing efforts.”
