Greenland Seminar Update: Presentations Now Available

Published On - March 31, 2021

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On 25 March 2021, Blue Circular economy partners in Greenland hosted a free online seminar about marine plastics in Greenland and recycling opportunities for discarded fishing gear. The seminar was extremely well attended, with participants from across the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) region and further afield.

Presentations

The first presentation came from Dr. Neil James of the Environmental Research Institute at the UHI’s North Highland College. Neil gave an update on the amazing work being done by citizen scientists and researchers via the Birds & Debris project, as well as the launch of its new Greenlandic Users Guide. Don’t forget to also check out the project on Twitter here.

Next, attendees heard from Christina Natalie Kompf of Greenland’s Qeqqata Kommunia who spoke about a waste clean-up project in Amerloq Fjord. You can read a little more about this project here.

Marine litter was also the topic of a presentation by Wouter Jan Strietman of Wageningen Economic Research who provided details about a source analysis of the waste found on Greenland’s beaches, much of which is derived from waste fishing gear including smaller waste cuttings.

After a short break, Ida Bertelsen of Technical University of Denmark (DTU) gave attendees some insight into the possible uses for waste fishing nets in the production of adobe bricks, which could provide a sustainable local building material for use in Greenland.

Finally, we heard from Professor Martin Charter of the Centre for Sustainable Design at England’s UCA. Martin spoke about products made from waste fishing gear as well as other elements of the Blue Circular Economy project including the idea of BCE ‘labs’ which could serve as centres for design, R&D, production, and other activities aimed at turning discarded fishing nets, ropes, and components into new products.

For PDF copies of the slides from these presentations, check out the box below.

If you would like any further information about any of these presentations, or about the Blue Circular Economy, please contact info@bluecirculareconomy.eu

If you would like to be informed about upcoming events, and the ongoing work of the project, you can sign up to our newsletter here.