Green economy

Circular economy, plastic fishermen's initiatives

From Coopservice's support for fishing boats on the Romagna coast to the start-up Ogyre, which uses blockchain to track waste fishing activity

by Davide Madeddu

27 January 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Coopservice initiatives
The activities of Gravity Wave and the Dutch Ocean Cleanup
The start-up Ogyre

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

From floating waste to raw material for new products. All, thanks to the activities of 'plastic fishermen'. It is another piece in the mosaic of the circular economy in which sustainability goes hand in hand with environmental protection.

Coopservice activities

A motive that is also shared by representatives of Coopservice, a company from Emilia Romagna that since 2024 has added the 'Let's clean up the sea' project to a marine protection initiative aimed at restoring Posidonia oceanica prairies in the Mediterranean Sea. Currently, the company is also involved in Fishing for Litter and Netreborn projects developed in areas along the Romagna coast, in collaboration with the Sea The Change and Cetacea Foundation organisations and the active participation of local fishermen.

"With Fishing for Litter we finance the collection of litter from the sea through outings of local fishing boats specifically dedicated to this activity," emphasises Davide De Lucia, Coopservice's communication specialist. "With Netreborn, on the other hand, we have equipped a cooperative of fishermen in Cesenatico with reusable plastic crates to replace disposable polystyrene containers which, as they deteriorate and decompose, can release microplastics that are lethal to aquatic fauna and flora. The results of these activities are documented annually in an accurate impact report that analytically reports all the data collected".

Some numbers: 250 metres of nets collected from fishing boats (plastic nets make up more than 77 per cent of the waste collected) and, thanks to the reusable boxes, 8,950 kilos of single-use plastic avoided. "Last year, a group of our employees was also involved in a clean-up day at the mouth of the Marecchia River in Rimini," adds De Lucia, "during which 15 bags of waste totalling 500 kilos were collected.

The activities of Gravity Wave and the Dutch Ocean Cleanup

In the mirror of the Mediterranean there are also other realities involved in recovering plastic and other waste that then become raw material such as Gravity Wave: a social enterprise that works with over 4,000 fishermen in the Mediterranean to recover plastic from the seabed, transforming it into furniture and design products. The company, as it points out on its website, has collected more than 1,179,995 kilograms of plastic in collaboration with 200 companies and 7,000 fishermen.

Also in the picture is the Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup: an organisation specialising in the development of advanced technologies to remove plastic. "We aim to clean up 90 per cent of the floating plastic pollution in the oceans by 2040," the non-profit emphasises on its website.

The start-up Ogyre

There are also other companies, also in Italy, specialising in cleaning waters, harbours and coastal areas from floating solid waste and oils. Carrying on a battle against plastic is the Italian start-up Ogyre, which has completed 'a 3.8 million euro capital increase to expand its global mission against marine litter pollution'. Founded in 2021, the company ended 2024 at break-even with a turnover of over €2 million. Ogyre works "closely with fishermen and local communities, at the heart of its regenerative model and, thanks to its operating fleets in Italy, Indonesia, Brazil and Senegal, contributes to cleaning up the Ocean and coastlines, safeguarding marine ecosystems."

"Thanks to its platform, which tracks via blockchain technology the waste fishing activities," they emphasise from the company, "Ogyre allows companies that want to campaign in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to finance waste collection and participate in the mission to rid the Ocean of plastic. The goal for 2026 is to reach an annual collection target of 2 million kilograms of waste, with an average of 5 tonnes removed per day, which is five times more than in 2025, aiming for an overall target of 20 million kilograms collected by 2030. "The ocean is a vital resource for our future: the livelihoods of 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity," comments Antonio Augeri, co-founder and ceo of Ogyre. "Thanks to the new capital, we will be able to significantly accelerate the achievement of our collection targets, with a scientific approach based on the systematic tracking of the waste life cycle.