PescART Menorca will strengthen its commercial strategy this year thanks to the support of the Fundació Sa Nostra and CaixaBank

The Plastic Free Menorca Alliance’s discarded fishing net recycling project is now in its third year of life and is focusing on its commercial development, thanks to funding received from the Sa Nostra Foundation and CaixaBank

In 2023 PescART will strengthen its commercialisation thanks to a €10,000 contribution from the Fundació Sa Nostra and CaixaBank. With the aim of consolidating and reinforcing the commercial viability of this initiative, the Plastic Free Menorca Alliance will carry out several actions, ranging from the creation of a website as a showcase for the products created by the artisans and companies involved in the project, to the implementation of training sessions focused on marketing and environmental communication. On the other hand, in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the project, the Alliance will offer training to interested people to provide them with tools to create artisanal products with the discarded nets.

PescART Menorca aims to convert discarded fishing nets into new, commercially viable products in order to reduce the significant environmental impact of this waste. In this sense, the project aims to restore value to the waste, promoting the circular economy and the symbiosis between the preservation of the environment and the local artisanal sector, while seeking cooperation between the productive sector, i.e. the fishermen’s guilds, and key players in the social sphere, such as the Foundation for People with Disabilities of Menorca. Thanks to the project, on the one hand, it avoids generating waste, using it as raw material for new commercially viable products. On the other hand, it promotes the generation of employment and green economy, combining it with social integration actions.

It is worth remembering that the PescART Menorca project was born in 2021 thanks to the support of Menorca Preservation, Ports IB and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Its first steps were the installation of containers for the collection of nets in Fornells and Ciutadella, the organisation of the logistics for collecting and storing them, and the holding of workshops to incorporate new people and ideas into the project.

Finally, it should be noted that PescART Menorca is looking for collaborations, both from the craft trade and other productive sectors with the capacity to give a new use to the discarded nets, and from the fishing sector and any social and cultural initiative aligned with the project’s vision.