BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 13, 2022
Oyster farmers use heavy-duty plastic bags to grow bivalves, but once the material starts to break down it’s tossed in the trash. A pair of Mainers are working to change that by developing a new method of recycling plastics like those found in the bags and other shellfish equipment. James Rutter, who works at Fab Lab and technology director at Deer Isle’s Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Dana Morse, a senior extension program manager at Maine Sea Grant, have set out to build specialized equipment to break the bags down into tiny pellets that can be morphed into a new shapes to give them new purpose.