Updated September 2022: Fishing line receptacles remain at Lake Fayetteville and Cave Springs Park but have been removed from several others. To show these changes clearly, we crossed out the names of formerly included lakes below.
Northwest Arkansas anglers can now help protect their favorite local lakes by recycling their fishing line.
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service and community volunteers have set up recycling bins for clean, used and expired monofilament lines at these bodies of water:
Bob Kidd Lake.- Cave Springs Park.
Lake Elmdale.- Lake Fayetteville.
Lake Sequoyah.Lake Wilson.
Line collected through the Adopt-A-Bin program will eventually go to Berkley Recycling in Iowa, where it’ll be broken down into small plastic pieces and remade into products such as benches and toys.
Why recycle fishing line? If you’ve seen clumps of fishing line on lakeshores and along creeks, you already know how good it is at twisting and tangling. Fish, frogs, even boat propellers get caught in line, killing wildlife and causing damage. Line can break down into microscopic pieces that wind up inside animals’ bodies, potentially including the people who eat those animals. And keeping and recycling old line also prevents that litter from spoiling our outdoor recreation areas.
You can help in other ways, too. Adopting a bin can mean volunteering to maintain a bin, building or sponsoring new ones, and spreading the word. Contact Meghan Post at mpost@uada.edu or 479-444-1755 for more information.
