Anglers, recycling and Litter - a study! (please help a student out!) - continued

[Goldylocks36]

Hi guys,

My name is Dan and I am a 23 year old Angler originally from Kent but I am currently studying an Industrial Design Degree at Loughborough University.

As part of my final year project, I am hoping to come up with a product/service/system to help reduce the negative impact from Anglers in terms of litter and waste (and in particular, with mono-filament disposal). I have created a really simple survey (below) which has only 10 questions and should take no more than 2/3 minutes if you could possibly help me obtain some nice juicy data!

Essentially I need some insights into current behavior and habits before I can begin to consider how to attack the problem and develop something accordingly! I appreciate some of the questions are a bit confusing (or poorly worded!) but any and all responses are very welcome and I appreciate you taking the time to read/respond!

P.S - anybody in the Loughborough/East Mids area that might be able to help or would be able to contribute in any way at all then I am all ears!

Thanks a ton & tight lines,

Angling waste/litter habits Survey

 

[mikench]

Done! If this is for a PhD i would widen it to include the wider society who bespoil, on a regular basis, this largely green and present land! We are a disgusting nation when it comes to dropping litter, flytipping and throwing waste from cars. Capital punishment would be a too liberal punishment for most! Anglers are representative of society sadly but many take litter seriously!

 

[rich66]

I’ll do it later for you I’m working at the moment... well supposed to be
I’m a leicester lad so drop me a pm I’ll help if I can
Rich

 

[davebhoy]

Completed

Something thats going to become more and more important for us fisherman. It will become increasingly less acceptable to leave mono lying around on the bank, and quite rightly so. The more we can be proactive, educate ourselves and find solutions to this problem, the less chance there is of some sort of punishing legislation.

Get in there first and self-legislate

 

[mikench]

Why should anglers be penalised more and before the rest of the population? I do not condone in any way the leaving of hooks, line, beer cans, meat cans and other litter on the bank but the dumping of old sofas, builders rubble, asbestos, old paint cans, plastics, old tyres and all the rest in country lanes, national parks, canals, fields, lay-bys , national car parks etc is far worse and its reduction and associated punishment of the perpetrators should be a greater priority! Anglers are far from perfect but the waste they leave behind is a drop in the lake by comparison!

Such a narrow source of reference for the study renders it almost meaningless in the real world! It could also damage the reputation of anglers in the process! We have lies, dam lies and statistics!

Make littering and fly tipping utterly unacceptable and dealt with severely and we might just train the population as a whole and thus the small section who are anglers! After all our European compatriots are positively paragons of cleanliness in comparison to us!

 

[peterjg]

It's not just litter. What about all the dog mess along the towpaths. What is amazing is the dog owners who bag the dog mess and then throw the bag in the bushes - unbelievable but true!!!

 

[mikench]

This thread is a repeat of one started in the newbie section at the end of October. I thought I was losing the plot(probably am) when I saw in it the posts of Crow and none of mine!

I can only assume the number of responses was inadequate! However the overall theme of the responses was that anglers are representative of society as a whole and are no better or worse! Looking at anglers in isolation is akin to pondering on whether the farts of ramblers are having an effect on the ozone layer ie unworthy of discussion and research!

 

[Goldylocks36]

Thank you all so much for the responses so far - it really all is very helpful and I appreciate it!

I am very aware that litter from other demographics and that this is one small issue amongst thousands of others, but for the purpose of this project I have purely focused in on the disposal of monofilament as a way of chipping away at the issue of it being hazardous in the environment. Anglers, in general, are actually very responsible as a whole and do care for the natural environment more than most (as it benefits us directly) - I am just purely trying to gather some insights into which direction to go with the design project!

As for the level, this project is a final year Design project (8 months) with an aesthetic prototype at the end, so the research phase is very fast and loose (undergraduate degree level). I am not aiming to solve the entire issue of litter/recycling/pollution etc but purely consider a way in which to make a dent, focusing on nylon mono-filament and its life cycle, as the fishing industry is one I am very passionate about and I can see as having a greater emphasis on recycling/more responsible practices.

In terms of the line recycling scheme - I am very pleased somebody finally mentioned it but the fact you are the first in close to 30 responses perhaps suggests how small it's impact has been so far and how it could do with improving? It is a great idea but currently there is not a great incentive for us Anglers to bother (understandably) and I am looking into how this can be improved.

Once again thank you all so much, I find it very interesting and useful and I promise I will update everyone if the project goes well and I nail it - who knows, I might even give you a shout out on Dragons Den one day?!

 

[davebhoy]

Thank you all so much for the responses so far - it really all is very helpful and I appreciate it!

I am very aware that litter from other demographics and that this is one small issue amongst thousands of others, but for the purpose of this project I have purely focused in on the disposal of monofilament as a way of chipping away at the issue of it being hazardous in the environment. Anglers, in general, are actually very responsible as a whole and do care for the natural environment more than most (as it benefits us directly) - I am just purely trying to gather some insights into which direction to go with the design project!

As for the level, this project is a final year Design project (8 months) with an aesthetic prototype at the end, so the research phase is very fast and loose (undergraduate degree level). I am not aiming to solve the entire issue of litter/recycling/pollution etc but purely consider a way in which to make a dent, focusing on nylon mono-filament and its life cycle, as the fishing industry is one I am very passionate about and I can see as having a greater emphasis on recycling/more responsible practices.

In terms of the line recycling scheme - I am very pleased somebody finally mentioned it but the fact you are the first in close to 30 responses perhaps suggests how small it's impact has been so far and how it could do with improving? It is a great idea but currently there is not a great incentive for us Anglers to bother (understandably) and I am looking into how this can be improved.

Once again thank you all so much, I find it very interesting and useful and I promise I will update everyone if the project goes well and I nail it - who knows, I might even give you a shout out on Dragons Den one day?!

Good luck ??????

 

[no-one in particular]

The bigger problem is line left after break offs not anglers failing to get rid of it. I have seen yards of the stuff hanging in trees and there must be yards of it laying in lakes and rivers. Sea line is just as bad, I recover yards of it when fishing and see it along the tide-line. Anglers have many break offs and lose it in rocks. Apparently it takes 500 years to break down so perhaps looking into a bio degradable line might be a more positive solution. There is hardly anything on the market especially in this country, invent one that works and is acceptable to anglers and you wont need gorgon's den.

 

[cassey]

Got to agree with Mikench sentiments. I thought it was a wind up and then an undefined link to click on !!

Would be interesting to know how many miles of line are sold in the uk each year and how many miles of line would fill a dustbin, just to get an idea of the size of the problem.

 

[keora]

Thank you all so much for the responses so far - it really all is very helpful and I appreciate it!

I am very aware that litter from other demographics and that this is one small issue amongst thousands of others, but for the purpose of this project I have purely focused in on the disposal of monofilament as a way of chipping away at the issue of it being hazardous in the environment. Anglers, in general, are actually very responsible as a whole and do care for the natural environment more than most (as it benefits us directly) - I am just purely trying to gather some insights into which direction to go with the design project!

As for the level, this project is a final year Design project (8 months) with an aesthetic prototype at the end, so the research phase is very fast and loose (undergraduate degree level). I am not aiming to solve the entire issue of litter/recycling/pollution etc but purely consider a way in which to make a dent, focusing on nylon mono-filament and its life cycle, as the fishing industry is one I am very passionate about and I can see as having a greater emphasis on recycling/more responsible practices.

In terms of the line recycling scheme - I am very pleased somebody finally mentioned it but the fact you are the first in close to 30 responses perhaps suggests how small it's impact has been so far and how it could do with improving? It is a great idea but currently there is not a great incentive for us Anglers to bother (understandably) and I am looking into how this can be improved.

Once again thank you all so much, I find it very interesting and useful and I promise I will update everyone if the project goes well and I nail it - who knows, I might even give you a shout out on Dragons Den one day?!

I've completed the survey. Having read your comments above, you seem to be concentrating on disposal of nylon fishing line - yet there's only one mention of it in the survey, which is more concerned with angling litter in general.

As for recycling of nylon line, I don't think there's any practical system for doing that. I bring home waste nylon line after fishing (there's more waste line with fly fishing as the leaders are longer than the hook lengths used in coarse fishing). I then put it in the black bin which the council provides for non recyclable materials. The bins contents are taken away and I imagine it will end up in landfill.

I'm not criticising the survey, I'm just indicating that it might be clearer if you defined what you mean by recycling.

Another thing to consider is how much nylon line is disposed of each year compared with other items. It must be a minute proportion of the total waste material collected each year by councils.Can there be any financial justification for recycling nylon line, rather than disposing of it.

 

[no-one in particular]

Another thing to consider is how much nylon line is disposed of each year compared with other items. It must be a minute proportion of the total waste material collected each year by councils.Can there be any financial justification for recycling nylon line, rather than disposing of it.

All plastic should be kept off landfills, it breaks down and leeches into rivers, seas, molluscs, fish. Tiny amounts or large amounts, does it matter. Its all probably the worst world wide pollutant we have produced so far.
I doubt keeping fishing line away from the general mass of it will make any difference but anglers should just become part of the public conscience and effort to combat it. It don't look good if we just sit by or make excuses and claim what great environmentalists we are when everyone else is making an effort or being made to make the effort.
Having said that I still think we are pretty responsible in disposing of line but the worst problem is that which we lose every year through break offs, I have seen lake beds smothered in the stuff and trees and shore lines littered with it. Solving that would be something.