THIS IS HOW the decorative letters made with plastic from the Mediterranean Sea LOOK LIKE, the new symbol of green tourism in Calpe.
LAS Letras decorativas hechas con plástico del mar Mediterráneo, el símbolo verde de Calpe.
Gravity Wave, our social impact company alongside Calpe Town Hall, CMPlastik, and the fishermen’s guild, have joined forces to fight against plastic in the sea with decorative letters made from 330 kg of 100% recycled plastic and fishing nets.
The Mediterranean Sea is the sea with the highest concentration of plastic in the world…
Every year 12 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into our seas and oceans.
Gravity Wave is a social enterprise based in Calpe, Alicante, dedicated to cleaning plastic from the sea with traditional fishermen and transforming it into valuable products.
Gravity Wave’s alliance with the fishermen of Calpe and the town council represents a union between different actors in society to provide a solution to the problem of plastic pollution in the Mediterranean.
The #CALPE decorative letters are made from 330 kg of 100% recycled plastic and fishing nets collected from the Mediterranean, and have been manufactured in the province of Valencia by CMPlastik, a company specialised in circular economy and partners of Gravity Wave.
PARTNERS
Each and every one of the parties involved has been involved in the management and creation of this symbol for a cleaner ocean to raise awareness in society and demonstrate that plastic waste is no longer rubbish but a treasure that opens up an infinite range of possibilities.
THE process
Marine litter is not waste. It is raw material!
Ghost fishing nets are one of the most abundant plastic waste in the sea. After intense research work, tests with materials, and many hours in the seaport, we can proudly say that we have managed to transform this waste, one of the most negative for the marine ecosystem, into the material used to make the sign you see below/above.
What has the process been like?
Once the abandoned nets have been collected from the Calpe’s seaport, we transfer them to our recycling plant, also located in the Valencian Community. Once there, the nets are shredded into tiny filaments and then combined with a base of post-industrial recycled plastic.
¡El residuo marino no es basura, es materia prima!
Las redes de pesca ‘fantasma’ son uno de los más abundantes residuos plásticos que hay en el mar. Tras un intenso trabajo de investigación, pruebas con materiales y muchas horas en el puerto, podemos decir orgullosos que hemos conseguido transformar dicho residuo, uno de los más negativos para el ecosistema marino, en el material con el que se han hecho el letrero que veis aquí abajo/arriba.
¿Cuál ha sido el proceso?
Una vez retiradas las redes abandonadas del propio puerto de Calpe, las trasladamos a nuestra planta de reciclaje, ubicada también en la Comunidad Valenciana. Allí, las redes se trituran en filamentos minúsculos para que luego sean combinadas junto a una base de plástico reciclado postindustrial.