Norway’s fishing industry is a major sector in the country’s economy and is relied on internationally, as Norway is the second largest global exporter of seafood (by value).

Plastic has been a key enabler for the industry’s growth, thanks to its low cost, malleability, resilience, and durability. But its negative impacts are less well known, including its leakage into nature, which has a greater direct effect on marine life than plastic leakage by other sectors through entanglement during ‘ghost fishing’, smothering, and other threats. In Norway, both fisheries and aquaculture firms have started to recognise the importance of moving towards a more circular plastic system and momentum is building. Research and pilots are already taking place both upstream and downstream but a robust EPR policy, constructed in collaboration with all actors in the value chain, will be key to accelerating the transition to a more circular system.

Our analysis shows that the demand for virgin plastics in fisheries and aquaculture can be reduced by ~16,000 tonnes (~48%), and the sector shift from 35% to 81% circularity^p, by 2040. As a result, total yearly GHG emissions related to this sector decrease from ~114,000 tonnes of CO₂eq to ~51,000 tonnes of CO₂eq by 2040 (Exhibit 24).

^o Circularity as a % of annual demand for plastic utility corrected for net addition to stock

EXHIBIT 24

* Circularity as a % of annual demand for plastic utility corrected for net addition to stock​
** Excluding production as majority takes place outside Norway​

While plastic demand per tonne of fish caught has been stabilising for both fisheries and aquaculture, annual demand for plastics utility is still increasing (expected to rise by ~27% between 2020 and 2040), driven by production growth³¹.
Plastic makes up ~70% of the weight of all gear used (45% for fisheries, 73% for aquaculture)¹¹. Fishing capacity has already gone through a restructuring phase and gear has now stabilised at ~9 kg of plastic/tonne of fish. In aquaculture, efficiency of plastic use is expected to show a slight improvement, driven by the move to larger offshore farms and the use of closed cages on onshore farms, before stabilising at ~117 kg of plastic/tonne of fish by 2030, highlighting the fact that aquaculture is far more plastic intensive than fishing.

Even though Norway is a frontrunner in plastic management in this sector, and there are many promising circularity pilot projects ongoing, the current system is still highly linear, with 66% of plastic waste currently incinerated, landfilled or leaked into nature.
Today, ~42% of total waste is incinerated, ~21% landfilled, and ~2% leaks into nature^q. Only ~33% of total waste is currently recycled, though this has been increasing over the last years. The majority of this recycled material flows to other sectors, but a small proportion of components are reused after gear has been discarded (~2%). However, it is important to note there is a strong culture of repair (the highest across all five sectors), and a significant amount of repair and reuse takes place before the gear is discarded, especially for nets, which are very expensive. Over 60% of nets get repaired at least once a year.

^q This is a highly uncertain and much debated figure; the majority are small low weight items like rope cuts, as large gear is more easily recoverable.

EXHIBIT 25

As % of total demand for utility (with deduction of stock)

* corrected for net addition to stock

water, and using them underwater, instead of on the water surface, wear and tear reduces significantly and average lifetimes can be expanded from one to approximately four years or longer. In fisheries, a good case can be made for trawl nets, which could be used for longer if they are lifted instead of swept over the seabed, which is also less harmful for the seafloor habitat.

Although Norway is leading the way in terms of design standards, there is still significant room for improvement. For the practices described above, the EPR regulation currently being discussed will be a key enabler. Beyond design, the regulation should consider usage practices and prohibit the discarding of gear that is still of good enough quality through the implementation of recertification processes. Today, too much gear is still being discarded before the end of its lifetime (this happens more often in aquaculture than fisheries, where expensive nets are repaired until this is no longer possible) because it is cheaper to discard elements than reuse them. This particularly tends to happen when a farm is expanding.

Secondly, local mechanical recycling in Norway could be expanded to recycle ~36% of total waste volumes domestically by 2040.
The main opportunity is for rigid High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) gear from aquaculture. This high value material is in high demand but the majority is currently exported to larger European players (e.g. Plastix). Supported by financing from EPR regulations, the local industry could become more competitive and expand its capacity further.

The main local recyclers include Noprec / Oceanize, Brontes, and Quantafuel Kristiansund. Today, local capacity is ~6,000-10,000 tonnes and this is expected to double over the next couple of years.

Design for recycling and promoting an increased uptake of recycled content by the industry are other key enablers for growing the local mechanical recycling industry. The Akva Group, in partnership with Plasto and Oceanize, is on track to achieve its mission to develop the first aquaculture farm using 100% recycled content

and has already made good progress³⁵. Similarly, ScaleAQ together with Hallingplast are developing equipment made of recycled material^{36, 37}.

It is estimated that ~45% of input can be recycled content by 2040. Better information sharing will be key to accelerating the uptake of recycled content. For example, a digitised information system that can track quality and control is critical for the market development of recycled plastics.

Thirdly, chemical recycling will remain a key solution for nets and capacity should be expanded. Hard to recycle nets make up >70% of the total plastic waste in fisheries, and >25% in aquaculture¹¹. Even though improvements can be made in terms of design for recycling, the mixed polymer design combined with unrecyclable materials and the condition of the nets at end-of-life will keep this a particularity difficult type of gear to recycle³⁸. However, Aquafil has a patented technology to process nets into Econyl yarn via a depolymerisation process and has created a positive market value. It is likely that chemical recycling of nets will continue to take place outside of Norway considering the investment required.

Zero leakage will remain difficult to achieve.
Along with post-consumer packaging, gear related to the fishing and aquaculture industry is the most significant source of marine litter found on beaches in Norway (18-90% of weight depending on the area)³⁹. In terms of impact, it has even higher negative effects, due to ghost fishing and smothering. It is very difficult to trace either the origin of the gear or the year of loss. Although Norway is a frontrunner in terms of good management practices to avoid leakage into the ocean, and is able to recover the majority of large gear lost, small items that are lost or discarded remain a big challenge. This also makes clean-ups particularly difficult and expensive.

Some experts believe biodegradable materials would be more effective than retrieval programmes, although most experts agree their use will remain very limited and the overall effect on circularity will be negligible. Further research and development into biodegradable materials for fishing gear is needed to understand technical feasibility. Dsolve is a good example of a Norwegian collaborative research programme on a mission to develop new biodegradable polymers for the marine environment⁴⁰.