Sustainable Fibre Solutions - Wool Rope

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My name is Kate Drury and I have been working in the agricultural industry for the past 30 years, on the farm and in ancillary trades. I am also the first elected female wool producer, on the board of British Wool Marketing Board. Alongside running my business, I am involved with promoting British farming and research. I want to realise the benefits wool rope can have on environmental challenges and create an opportunity for society to access and raise demand for British wool a beautiful natural product.The innovation will seek to address environmental, economic and societal issues. These include, but not exclusive to, the lack of alternatives to polypropylene in the mariculture industry, the lack of availability for a northern hemisphere natural fibre available at a commercial level and the low value UK farmers receive for their wool.To date, wool is an underutilised sustainable biogenic resource that has the potential to reduce the use of plastic within the environment. Wool can be manufactured into rope; it is an innovative product but is it viable? It is important to understand, does it have enough tensile strength, and can it be used within the industry without the risk of damage to the environment? Work carried out by Sustainable Rope has answered these two questions and now seeks to develop the product for broad application in mariculture, permaculture and eco-system renewal by taking the characteristics identified and deploying them in the best way, using a commercial product from a sustainable company.Over the past year I have been researching the value of rope made out of wool, sourcing the supply chain and I now have a commercial business manufacturing wool rope in the UK, winning the Wool Innovation Award 2022\. The innovation is to capture the viability, longevity through degradation rates and critical strength application of the rope for aqua and mariculture to provide an alternative to plastic rope and mitigate plastic pollution.Wool rope has the ability to help strategic environmental and social policy, such as UK Innovation Strategy, Brand Britain, Sustainable Development Goals and Levelling up Rural Britain. The full process is still available here in the UK, made in Britain using British raw materials. Many additional markets have arisen; however the success will be to exploit the research that this application seeks to carryout.