Fishing gear waste is being turned into plant pots and swimwear
Also: Tips for building more climate-proof homes
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This week:
- Fishing gear waste is being turned into plant pots, park benches and swimwear
- The Big Picture: Deadly floods change landscape in Texas
- When it comes to climate-proofing homes, a few hundred dollars goes a long way
Fishing gear waste is being turned into plant pots and swimwear
Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear — also called "ghost gear" — is considered to be a leading cause of marine animal deaths. It can stay in the oceans for hundreds of years and small whales, seals, sea lions, turtles and fish can get entangled in the nets or ropes and suffocate or starve.
"Here in Nova Scotia, if you walk around any coastline, you only have to go a few tens of meters before you find a trap which has been washed ashore by a heavy storm," said Tony Walker, a professor in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) says that 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear enters the world's oceans every year. Discarded nets, lines and ropes make up almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
In Canada, only about half of the gear reported lost to DFO over the past four years was retrieved — mostly traps or pots used in lobster and crab fisheries.
In Nova Scotia, Walker says up to two per cent of Nova Scotia's traps are lost per year — often to storms, snags on boats, rocks or other debris — which he says adds up.
"Wherever there's fishing activity in Canada, there's likely to be some element of ghost gear," he said, adding that a single trap weighs about 40 kilograms and has rope roughly three times longer than the depth of the water.
Since 2019, DFO has dedicated over $58 million to the cause through their Ghost Gear Program, funding 143 projects across the country to clean up and repurpose the gear — making new products from park benches to flower pots.
Canadian efforts to repurpose ghost gear
B.C.-based nonprofit Ocean Legacy is working to gather and repurpose ghost gear. So far, the nonprofit has seven depots, where they accept 11 different types of materials recovered from ocean and shoreline cleanups done by volunteers and funded cleanup positions.
"We've diverted about 2.9 million pounds of material at this point," said Chloé Dubois, who is co-founder and executive director of the Ocean Legacy Foundation.
After doing beach cleanups and gathering the fishing waste, Ocean Legacy works to transform the materials into long-lasting products ranging from zippers, buttons and buckles to construction materials such as boards and lumber.
Currently, Dubois says their leading sector is outdoor gardening, notably flower pots and benches made from recycled ghost gear.
Ocean Legacy works with other Canadian companies: Legacy Plastic which turns the waste into things like compost bins, garden tools, patio furniture and park benches; Good World Materials which takes waste from B.C. beaches to make sustainable side tables; and New Brunswick-based Plaex which makes Lego-like blocks for construction and landscaping.
The Saltwater Collective is a Toronto-based, women-owned business that turns abandoned fishing nets into ECONYL swimwear. The ECONYL is created by extracting and purifying nylon waste to create the same product as fossil-based nylon. It can be recycled and remoulded infinitely, without impacting quality.
Policy changes needed
Despite multiple efforts to clean up ghost gear, policy change is still needed, say Walker and Dubois.
Walker points to a policy that doesn't allow fishers to bring back traps that don't belong to them. Each trap has a distinct number associated with it, and if DFO regulators suspect they've been poaching, they risk fines or losing their license.
"There's been no incentive for fishers to retrieve traps," he said.
Dubois is also fighting for rules that require products to use a minimum amount of recycled plastics, so that there is an incentive to invest in the infrastructure needed to produce those goods.
Dubois hopes people will start looking at how they can recirculate extracted resources to minimize the impact to the planet.
"Redesigning new systems that are actually going to sustain life long-term is going to be essential for the future of humanity."
— Bridget Stringer-Holden
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Reader Feedback
Last week, we featured a story about sustainable kitty litter made from flax straw. Elizabeth White of Salt Spring Island, B.C., wrote: "Somewhat surprised to read that flax straw is considered a waste product in Saskatchewan. Flax straw fibres have been valued for millennia and are the source of linen. Flax straw has many uses beyond kitty litter."
The Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission says there are currently a few local markets for flax straw — as bales for windbreaks, cattle bedding, horticultural mulch, and as a traction source for oil well sites. Most of the flax grown in Canada is oilseed flax, and there are some challenges to producing flax for fibres such as linen in Canada, the commission says.
Also last week, reader Amanda Blain described how she naturalized much of her property and shared a photo of her garden. Bill Priestman of Yarker, Ont., says it inspired him "to add my two cents to the naturalization of personal plots of land." He says he has been working hard to remove invasive species from his half-hectare of land, identifying them with the iNaturalist and Seek apps. "One amazing thing has been happening, and it's what keeps me going over the last few years, [is] native plants have popped up all on their own ... no cost to me other than a quirky labour of love! These include evening primroses, black-eyed Susans, lots [of] asters (American and Ontario), and lots of Canada anemone, which filled in a void after I had pulled out every orange lily I could find. But my most favourite plant is the orange-fruited horse gentian (where do these names come from??) I currently have three! Thanks for connecting us all together."
Anita Pane of Perth, Ont., sent us a photo of native plants in her garden, writing: "When I was young, my family grew vegetables at our cottage every year. Almost all of my adult life, I have had a vegetable garden or two. Due to circumstances and overly friendly deer at my current location, I have not grown vegetables for a couple of years. While I was growing vegetables, I did not weed out wildflowers that had spread to the vegetable garden from a nearby wildflower garden. I donated the wildflowers to others for pollinator gardens. Now my garden is completely overrun with wildflowers, mostly black-eyed Susans and a few red bee balm and purple coneflowers. I need people to come and take some away!"
Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And feel free to send photos, too!)
The Big Picture: Deadly floods change landscape in Texas
Satellite images of before and after the deadly flash floods in Central Texas last week provide a glimpse of how destructive they were. The water in the Guadalupe River rose eight metres in 45 minutes. In the photo above, even after receding from its peak, the water remains high enough to pour over the Ingram Dam, having ripped out huge swaths of trees on the banks of the river. Scientists say a hotter climate helped fuel the conditions that made such an extreme flood possible. You can see more images of how the floods changed the landscape in this photo gallery.
— Emily Chung
Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web
- Ontario bought two electric ferries to serve Wolfe Island and Amherst Island near Kingston. But since they began service last summer, they've been running mostly on diesel. Here's why and what that's cost.
- Deposit, drink, return: Lisbon is the first European capital with a citywide reusable cup scheme
- Many politicians say when it comes to energy, we need "all of the above" including both renewables and fossil fuels. Ralph Torrie of Corporate Knights explains why he thinks those kinds of policies won't work.
- Who has air conditioning in Canada? Statistics Canada breaks it down. Also, it finds that most people set their thermostats below the temperatures recommended by Natural Resources Canada.
When it comes to climate-proofing homes, a few hundred dollars goes a long way
A downburst that touched down on Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park on June 21 downed thousands of trees.
Had the storm hit an urban area, the high winds could have caused significant damage to buildings.
Connell Miller, the acting director of Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project, said destructive storms are becoming more common because of climate change, but small changes to Ontario's Building Code could help protect homes from the powerful winds.
"We think for about $200 to $300 in parts and labour on new building house construction, we can prevent these roofs from being ripped off," Miller said.
"Once a roof gets ripped off a house, the house is essentially a write-off at that point."
Miller said all that needs to change is for 12-inch screws to be used in wall-to-roof connections, instead of nails.
Reinforcing those connections, he said, would allow homes to withstand 95 per cent of the tornadoes that touch down in Canada.
But while strong winds can threaten homes, heavy rainfall and wildfires are responsible for the bulk of climate change-related damage.
Blair Feltmate leads the University of Waterloo's Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, which looks at ways to mitigate risks from flooding, wildfires and extreme heat to people's homes and communities.
Feltmate said that from 1983 to 2008, home insurance claims in Canada related to catastrophic weather events — such as flooding and wildfire damage — would typically total $250 million to $450 million in a given year.
But in the last 15 years, that yearly average has shot up to around $2.8 billion in insurance claims.
"Things are getting worse faster," Feltmate said.
There are now 1.5 million homes in Canada that no longer qualify for basement flooding insurance because they are located in floodplains.
Feltmate said provincial building codes have just started to recognize these risks in recent years. But legislation is slow to update.
The Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation now publishes infographics that municipalities can freely share with residents and give homeowners tips on how to protect their houses from flooding and wildfires.
Some of these actions, said Feltmate, are free or cost very little.
If a home has a sump pump in the basement, for example, Feltmate said it's important to test if it works before there's a big storm. Sump pumps should also be connected to battery power or a generator in case of a power outage, he added.
Protecting homes from wildfires includes steps such as keeping shrubs at least 1.5 metres from the outside of the house and replacing wooden fences with fireproof materials.
"Over the last, I would say five to eight years, we've developed very good guidance that's practical, meaningful and cost effective that gives direction on how to prepare homes and communities for flooding and wildfire," Feltmate said.
Building more efficient homes
Extreme heat is another climate-related risk.
According to Statistics Canada, "extreme heat events during the period from 2000 to 2020 were found to be associated with approximately 670 excess non-accidental deaths and 230 excess deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory causes."
Rob Fleury, the owner of HP Home Design in Sudbury, Ont., is certified in passive house design, which is a standard for more energy efficient homes.
Through better insulation, strategic window placement and placing large overhangs over south-facing exterior walls, Fleury said it's possible to reduce reliance on air conditioning and cut energy costs by a significant margin.
But in northern Ontario, passive houses are 20 to 25 per cent more expensive to build than homes that don't exceed the requirements of the Ontario Building Code.
"You're putting upfront costs in the beginning and recouping those costs over time," Fleury said.
Those higher upfront costs have meant lower demand for passive houses.
Fleury said they only account for around five per cent of his business. But he hopes building more pre-fabricated homes could eventually help lower those costs.
"I think the challenge would be having the factories available in the location so that you're not trucking, you know, hours and hours across the province."
— Jonathan Migneault
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
