Effort expanding to recycle old fishing line
WINONA, MN — An effort is expanding to lessen the damage that used monofilament fishing line can have on the environment.
A group called “Friends of the Refuge Headwaters” is adding 10 recycling stations to the 26 they already have at boat landings and popular fishing spots in Winona.
All a fisherman has to do is drop in used line and it’s collected and sent to a company that recycles it into fish cribs. So far, they’ve collected thousands of yards worth of line.
The line can not only get tangled in boat propellers, but if an animal gets caught up in it, it can be a death sentence. “If you get a bird stuck in some monofilament, it’s going to starve to death, it’s going to get tangled up, it’s not going to be able to move around, a lot of times turtles, fish, you name it, eagles, every kind of bird they get tangled up in this,” said John Carrier from “Friends of the Refuge Headwaters.”
21539116So far, more than nine million miles of line has been recycled through the program nationwide.
