Waste to Value Process Chain for Recycling of Fishing Gear Collected from Coastal Waters

Abstract Plastic waste in coastal waters has become a major environmental concern and a visible sign of ocean pollution. A significant share of the floating waste material originates from used and lost fishing gear. By establishing suitable recycling processing chains, used fishing gear can become a valuable resource for the manufacturing of products, fostering its extraction from the water and boosting local economies. Post-use fishing gear, however, is a very challenging input material for processing into recylcates. Understanding its degradation mechanisms is crucial for designing a recycling process that will yield high value materials. There are particular obstacles connected with each recycling step, starting with the collection of very heterogeneously aged and deteriorated fishing gear. Consecutively, shredding of the waste material requires the development of specific technological solutions. Marine dirt adds additional obstacles. Further processing steps that need to be adapted include extrusion, pelletizing injection molding and marketing of the products from recycled material in competition with ones using raw materials. This study presents a waste-to-value process chain design that addresses the specific challenges of recycling fishing gear collected from coastal waters. Data has been collected to identify and quantify sources of plastic waste from fishing activities, and solutions have been developed in local higher education through a joint German-Vietnamese effort.