Interreg Plastron: Reuse of Marine Plastic Through Additive Manufacturing

The PLASTRON (Reuse of plastic from the sea using additive manufacturing as a strategy for the challenges of tourism supply chains and business resilience (Italian acronym: riuso della PLAstica dal mare usando la manifattura additiva come Strategia per le sfide delle filiere del TuRismO e la resilieNza delle imprese)) project aims to enhance the sustainability of coastal communities by improving plastic waste management and fostering the transition to efficient circular economy models, aligned with the European Green Deal. A Franco-Italian multidisciplinary team is testing low-investment local initiatives for collecting plastics from coasts, ports, and the sea. The project develops protocols to integrate waste into the recycling chain and create value-added goods through additive manufacturing. Special focus is given to degraded marine litter and mixed plastics, exploring their reuse via blending with other materials and natural additives. The focus was on the characterisation of two material blends, polyolefin mix (MPO) and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), both with plastic marine litter. The processability of the MPO blend was comparable to that of commercial recycled MPO. The differences observed between 3D printing and injection moulding for the MPO derived from marine litter were negligible, unlike those found in the commercial MPO. The PET, modified with 0.8% chain extender additive, exhibited performance equivalent to—or in some cases even superior to—that of virgin commercial PET. However, 3D printing processing induced a certain brittleness in the material.