From Waste to Waterways: Australia’s First Circular Fishing Float
Recreational fishing is part of Australia’s identity, but it also brings an often-overlooked challenge: ghost gear. Lost or abandoned items such as crab pots and polystyrene floats can continue trapping crabs, fish, and turtles long after they’re forgotten. Polystyrene floats are especially damaging, breaking down quickly into microplastics that spread through rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters.
To address this, we partnered with OzFish Unlimited and Defy Design, to create LoopFloat – Australia’s first circular product designed for recreational fishers. Rather than relying on clean-ups, LoopFloat tackles ghost gear at its source, offering a durable, recyclable alternative to polystyrene.
LoopFloat’s story began with two major recovery projects: the Great Aussie Crab Pot Review, funded by the Australian Government Ghost Nets Initiative, and the Yabby Trap Round-Up, funded by WIRES and the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust. Thousands of discarded pots and yabby ‘opera house’ traps were dismantled and cleaned by hand, with their recoverable material transformed into new floats. This process supplied the raw material and showed that recreational fishing gear waste could be re-imagined as a resource.
Designed in consultation with fishers, LoopFloat combines practicality with sustainability. Its high visibility, flat surface for labelling, and adjustable tie-off loop help fishers comply with regulations and secure pots more effectively, reducing loss and ghost fishing. At the end of its life, each float can be returned through OzFish’s Tackle Loop program for recycling, closing the loop.
The potential impact is significant. Around 10,000 floats are sold nationally each quarter. If LoopFloat replaces these sales, more than 40,000 polystyrene floats could be avoided every year. Because LoopFloat is durable and designed to reduce gear loss, fewer floats are likely to end up as ghost gear in the first place.
Equally important is the community behind the project. LoopFloat has mobilised thousands of volunteer hours, engaged fishers in its design, and shifted the focus from blame to empowerment. It demonstrates that ghost gear is not inevitable, but a design challenge that can be solved.
LoopFloat will be available online through OzFish and in retail stores from late 2025. By transforming waste into a solution, it shows how circular design can protect both fishing traditions and the waterways they depend on.