Every year, between six and eight million tonnes of marine litter enter the oceans, according to the latest report by Ecologists in Action “Marine litter, plastics and microplastics”. Of these tonnes, plastics account for more than 80%. This serious problem of pollution and the threat they pose to the species that inhabit the oceans has been the starting point of a series of entrepreneurial projects that, through creativity, R+D+i and a strong will to change the way things are being done are being examples of how to return life to the sea from the green economy.

According to recent studies, more than 690 species have had some interaction with marine litter. Animals become entangled in them and mistake the smallest fragments for food, which can lead to poisoning and end their lives.

In addition, marine debris causes economic losses in sea-dependent sectors and in production in general.

In this context, several entrepreneurs from our Red emprendeverde try to help with their projects to alleviate this situation and have seen in the cleaning of the oceans a business niche.

One of the best-known examples is that of Ecoalf, a pioneer in the development of sustainable fashion aimed at the circular economy that collects marine waste from the seabed, treats it and turns it into yarn to make clothes and accessories. Ecoalf works with 3,000 fishermen from 40 ports, collecting and transforming 250 tonnes of marine waste per year and recycling almost 80% of the materials that come out of the sea.

In the world of textiles and sustainable fashion we also find The Running Republic, a sportswear firm that makes its garments from recycled fabrics from plastic bottles and plastic waste from the Oceans. In their case, 84% is the average recycled material present in their fabrics and they assure that 1 kilo of recycled material is enough to produce about three T-shirts, which means one kilo less plastic waste in the Oceans and 5 kilos less CO2 in the atmosphere during the production process.

Undoubtedly, fashion is one of the sectors in which more opportunities related to the cleaning of the Oceans are being reflected, as is the case of the swimwear brand Now-Then, which creates eco-luxury collections made in a responsible and limited way. They research the most sustainable fabrics and are a brand associated with the ECONYL project, recycling garbage rescued from the sea to give them a second life in the form of fabric. Each swimsuit they produce recycles 300 gr. Marine litter and its fabrics and components are “detox”, as they have the Oekotex100 certification that guarantees that they are free of toxins and substances harmful to health.

By making sunglasses from recyclable materials recovered from the oceans, Sea2see aims to do its bit for “ocean recycling”. They have plastic containers on Spanish beaches and have agreements in ports with fishermen’s guilds to obtain their raw material. Once the material is collected, it is selected, cut and cleaned and after this expensive process, it is sent to Italy for manufacturing.

Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinksi are the fathers of the Seabin Project, an initiative to install collection bins (seabins) for waste floating in seawater. The seabins function as points in an automated floating garbage collection system.

Disused fishing nets and aluminum scrap are the raw material of this 100% recycled mobile phone case that is marketed under the name of Popsicase. The nets are sorted, washed, chopped and melted in a laborious process of transformation. The result is a 100% recycled plastic pallet that Popsicase uses for manufacturing.

The recycling of boat sails into accessories is the starting point of The Sail Doctor, where bags and accessories are made that give a second life to the old sail. This same raw material is used by the company Dvelas to carry out its designer furniture. Candles with a history transformed into armchairs, poufs, chairs, tables and hangers in limited editions, labelled with the data of origin and handcrafted in Spain.

In the furniture sector, Aiba Studio is also active, lamps made from defective or unusable buoys, either due to manufacturing failures or deterioration caused by use.

All of them, each one contributes in their own way to reduce marine pollution with their entrepreneurship and what other way of doing things is possible.

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The Emprendeverde Network already has nearly 9,000 members and is the first platform in Spain specialising in green business aimed at entrepreneurs and investors. Through their website you can www.redemprendeverde.es learn about all the free services they offer. La Red is a very active platform on Social Networks, to the point that it has about 100,000 followers on all its profiles. You can follow their twitter @emprendeverde to keep up to date with their main initiatives.