There is increased focus and initiatives on cleaning up marine debris, and now industries are also taking a serious interest in the fight for a cleaner sea. Recently, the business cluster Marine Recycling Cluster from Lofoten and Vesterålen was recognized for its work and awarded Arena Cluster status by the Norwegian Innovation Cluster (NIC), a state-funded program consisting of the Research Council, Siva and Innovation Norway.

The Marine Recycling Cluster (MRC), of which LoVeMar is a part, is led by the Egga Utvikling AS (Stokmarknes division) and consists of over 20 companies that collaborate on the development of technology for efficient and safe cleaning of marine debris.

The Marine Recycling Cluster develops technology for mapping marine debris and for cleaning up and handling waste. Furthermore the cluster is creating an industrial value-chain that can handle discarded equipment from the fishing industry and aquaculture. A third focus area is the production of synthetic diesel from global plastic waste.

NIC is a program that supports clusters and business partnerships that create value through sustainable innovation. The arena cluster status entails an annual funding from NIC of two million NOK over a period of three years. The financing will primarily go to collaboration costs for the cluster, increased visibility for the work that the companies in the cluster do and to arrange various events and conferences.

MRC’s three concepts “Marine Clean-up Tool Box”, “Marine Precycling” and “Marine Energy Recycling” were particularly interesting to NIC. The award and recognition is a great motivation and inspiration for the further work in MRC. “An enormous vitamin boost for the work we do,” says head of MRC, Børge Bentsen said to Kyst og Fjord.

Read more about the award: Opp i elitedivisjon (Kyst og fjord, 8.11.2019) and Tar opp åtte nye klynger i fornyet satsing (Innovasjon Norge, 8.11.2019)