Overview

In pursuit of innovative and sustainable solutions for marine plastic waste, the Circular Ocean project seeks to inspire enterprises and entrepreneurs to realise the hidden opportunities of discarded fishing nets and ropes in the Northern Periphery & Arctic (NPA) region. As increasing levels of marine litter is particularly pertinent to the NPA region, the Circular Ocean project will act as a catalyst to motivate and empower remote communities to develop sustainable and green business opportunities that will enhance income generation and retention within local regions. Through transnational collaboration and eco-innovation Circular Ocean will develop, share and test new sustainable solutions to incentivise the collection and reprocessing of discarded fishing nets and assist the movement towards a more circular economy. Circular Ocean is led by the Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College UHI (Scotland), and is funded under the ERDF Interreg VB Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) Programme. It has partners in Rep. of Ireland (Macroom E), England (The Centre for Sustainable Design®, University for the Creative Arts), Greenland (Arctic Technology Centre), and Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).