Alaska Fish Factor

More than one million pounds of old fishing nets and lines from Alaska have made it to recycling markets, where they are remade into plastic pellets and fibers.

The milestone was reached with a recent haul of nets from Unalaska, and more are already adding to the total. Shipping vans filled with old gear collected at Haines were offloaded in Seattle last week and another container from Cordova is on its way.

Unalaska was the first to sign on four years ago with Net Your Problem (NYP), a small Seattle-based company that jump-started fishing gear recycling in Alaska and facilitates its collectio...