Four year after kicking off, the Repesca project has been completed having met its goal of developing a better way to deal with passively fished marine litter, reports Spanish plastics technology centre Aimplas.
The project showed it was possible to develop a complete management system for plastic waste recovered from the sea and subsequent recycling to manufacture products of commercial value.
While the primary aim of the project was to reduce the waste found in the sea, it also yielded insight into the composition of marine litter and its location, due to the close cooperation with the fishing industry.
During the project the routes of the fishing boats were monitored and therefore their fishing areas were known, enabling a map of the areas to be made. Moreover, an analysis of density - items/km2 - and location of the marine litter found was performed. This helped to make it possible to design a complete passive fishing strategy and management system for this waste, as well as mechanisms for recovery of the plastic fraction.
A system was created that starts with the recovery of waste each time a vessel was out fishing (passive waste fishing). This waste is then temporarily stored in containers at the port after being weighed and labelled. Samples of the plastic fraction are taken in accordance with the MARNOBA method. In the laboratory after which the material is classified by type. This process showed that the waste mainly consisted of low-density polyethylene, PET containers and polyamide packaging. As a final step, the plastic material is shredded, washed and dried at a recycling plant for recovery via either mechanical and chemical recycling.
According to Sonia Albein, principal investigator of the project and Mechanical Recycling Group Leader at Aimplas, one of the specific goals in the fourth year design a monitored management system to enable the marine waste to be treated industrially.
From that perspective, RepescaPlas has been very successful. Thanks to the cooperation with the E. Niño sorting plant in Arganda del Rey (Madrid), which is equipped with infrared sorting equipment, this material could be sorted and mechanically recycled into recyclate suitable for the manufacture of new products. Three demo samples were developed, namely a paper bin, a clipboard and a flowerpot. The remaining mixed waste fraction was chemically recycled using a pyrolysis process. This resulted in a solid fraction suitable for the synthesis of activated carbon or lampblack and a liquid fraction recoverable as fuel and suitable for used by the fishing vessels.
The RepescaPlas Project was developed with the cooperation of the Biodiversity Foundation and the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge through the Pleamar Programme, co-funded by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP).