BOSTON -- Each year, thousands of pounds of trash are found in the ocean. Some of it washes up on shore, but most of it pollutes the water and harms the marine environment.

Marine Debris Turned Into Electricity

NewsCenter 5's David Brown reported on how some old fishing gear is being dealt with responsibly.

"There's lobster traps; there's gillnets; there's dragger nets," said fisherman Frank Mirarchi.

In 14 months, Mirarchi pulled nearly three tons of traps, rope and gillnet that was caught in his trawler. The marine debris had been floating in the ocean, trashing the environment and hurting marine life.

"It's out of sight, out of mind. You don't see it, you don't realize it's there. We see it and we know it's there, and we'd like to do something about it," he said.

"The volume of it is shocking, especially for the lay person when they see how much of it is really coming out of the oceans, and how much really needs to be managed and disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. I think that's what is really shocking," said Christine McCoy of Covanta Energy.

In a unique partnership between the Scituate fishing community, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Covanta Energy, the debris is collected and recycled. Fisherman will take the debris and place it in bins, and Covanta will take the tons to their waste-to-energy facilities, turning it into valuable electricity.

Debris isn't only a hazard for marine life and the quality of the ocean, it's also a huge time waster for the fisherman -- all the time spent dealing with the ocean debris takes time away from fishing.

"It's a time consumption thing for us. Where we have a very limited amount of time to spend out at sea fishing. Any time wasted dealing with this stuff is what kills us," fisherman David Haley said.