RECYCLE LINE Solving an angling problem

Fishing line waste is a problem, but we can all be part of the solution

ANGLERS have an obligation to look after the environment, which is why recycling our old and disused fishing line is vital.

Since March 2018, the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme (ANLRS) has prevented nearly six million metres of line from reaching landfill by collecting it from tackle shops and delivering it to the Maltings Organic Treatment and Reworked unit in Leeds.

Here, the line is melted down and used to bind other recycled plastics to create reusable plastic items, including fishing kayaks, Method moulds and disgorgers. Viv Shears is the co-founder of the scheme and believes that millions of metres of surplus line could be recycled when the lockdown finishes and we can all get out and about again.

“No doubt there are anglers out there who will have been using lockdown time to replace their lines in anticipation of getting back on the bank or shingle,” he says.

“Carp anglers, for example, will no doubt have had multiple reels to re-spool, which could see them take off more than 1000m of line in a sitting.

“This could be incredibly damaging to the environment if it ended up in landfill, considering heavy monofilament can take up to 600 years to degrade.

“It really puts it into perspective, then, when you consider there are more than one million anglers in the UK.

“If only 10 per cent of those who’ve re-spooled line dispose of it in an ANLRS bin then we could see tens of millions of metres donated in a month, when the shops