Mitigation approach of plastic and microplastic pollution through recycling of fishing nets at the end of life

Plastic and microplastic pollution in the marine environment is a global issue and lost or discarded fishing nets (FNs) represent a relevant part of the marine litter. This type of waste is very harmful to marine organisms due to ghost fishing and microplastics release. Furthermore, nets are difficult to dispose because they take up a lot of space at landfill sites and are expensive to transport. Therefore, the development of recovery and recycling strategies represents one of the solutions for this problem. In the present work, a multifilament, knotted, twisted waste FN, composed of nylon 6,6, was recycled realizing composite materials in combination with recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) or poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) matrices. The composites were realized exploiting a cold mixing approach, mixing the FN, either as a pre-ground short fiber filler or as mats, with the polymers swollen in an organic solvent. Several compositions were explored by these approaches and the composites were characterized by means of thermal, spectroscopic, mechanical and morphological analyses. Finally, a qualitative assessment of the economic impact of fishing net recycling was conducted. Results showed that the proposed recycling approaches allow to realize composite materials with interesting properties, opening new routes for recycling the FNs at the end of life improving the circular economy of plastics and reducing their ecological, ecosystem service and social and economic impacts.