Description:

The kingi board is a collaboration between Rui Peng, co-founder at CRITICAL, Tom Hishon, co-founder and chef at sustainable seafood restaurant kingi, and non-profit organisation LegaSea. These three diverse groups share the common goals of reducing plastic waste in our ocean, and ending bottom trawling in New Zealand waters.

Bottom trawling is a fishing method used by commercial fishing boats. They drag fishing equipment and nets across the seafloor destroying valuable marine ecosystems and reef structures while capturing unwanted sea life and bycatch along the way. It takes a minimum of seven years for a trawled seafloor area to recover. That’s not good enough.

The kingi board is helping to raise awareness, and discussion about bottom trawling, one chopping board at a time.

Designed by Rui and Tom, the kingi board is made from CRITICAL Cleanstone 100% recycled plastic. Using Critical’s proprietary technology, the kingi board turns old commercial fishing nets and recycled post-consumer packaging and plastics into a chef-grade chopping board.

It took Peng and his team at CRITICAL over 6 years of research and development to refine its proprietary technology that can now recycle almost all of the 24 types of plastic waste. New Zealand’s current recycling infrastructure only recycles four of the 24 varieties of plastic waste.

Compared to chopping boards made from virgin plastics, each kingi board helps to avoid approximately 14kgs of carbon emissions and divert over 4kgs of ocean, post consumer and commercial plastics from landfill.

The kingi board is 500mm wide x 300mm high x 20mm deep. It’s the perfect size for fish fileting, and can be used in the kitchen, boat or bach. It has rounded corners and smooth beveled edges, and four silicon non-slip feet. Each board is unique in color and pattern, reflecting the fishing nets they are made from. The boards are dishwasher safe. The packaging is a minimal black only print on recyclable craft paper.

Hishon says the kingi board is a natural extension of his restaurant kingi's values and vision. "Kingi celebrates local seafood. We advocate for sustainable fishing methods that don’t include bottom trawling, supporting fishermen and women who believe in these practices and care about ensuring the future abundance of fish stocks. They’re our oceans’ guardians, they’re our kaitiaki.”

All profits from the kingi board go to LegaSea, a non-profit organisation dedicated to restoring the abundance, biodiversity, and health of New Zealand’s marine environment.

LegaSea has established there is significant public opposition to bottom trawling in New Zealand, with 79% of Kiwis believing bottom trawling and dredging should be phased out of inshore fisheries and replaced with selective fishing techniques.

By using old commercial fishing nets and recycled post-consumer packaging and plastics to create a simple, useful, sustainable product, we are shining a light on the impact of bottom trawling and commercial fishing on our marine ecosystem and advocating for real change.