Petition · past parliament · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Introduce a national fishing line recycling scheme

Closed 2,760 signatures

What the petition asks

400 million metres of fishing line is discarded in the UK each year. It takes 600 years for heavy monofilament to degrade.
Fishing litter and discarded nets cause injury and death to thousands of wild animals every year.

We need the Government to introduce a national scheme to address this.

I want the government to:

1. Require material on fishing line recycling is provided whenever someone buys an EA fishing licence.

2. Provide funding for fishing line recycling bins in local parks and other open access fisheries such as canals, rivers and sea venues. Anywhere someone can fish, there should be a recycling bin.

3. Provide funding for recycling schemes, like the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme, so these can be expanded to assist in the recycling of line, nets and all plastics collected both in freshwater and marine environments.

Timeline

10 Feb 2021 Petition opened for signatures
10 Aug 2021 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 2,760
Status Closed
Department Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Opened 10 Feb 2021
Closed 10 Aug 2021

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.