Mechanical Recycling of Post-Consumer Polypropylene Fishing Nets: Effect of Blending with Virgin Polymer

The extensive use of plastic materials across the fisheries sector, including fishing, aquaculture and fish product manufacturing and processing, represents a significant source of environmental pollution. In particular, end-of-life fishing nets, typically made of oil-based polymers, contribute to the accumulation of persistent plastic waste in marine ecosystems. Mechanical recycling has recently emerged as a promising strategy to recover such materials and reintroduce them into production cycles, supporting circular economy practices. In this work, post-consumer polypropylene (PP) fishing nets were collected and mechanically recycled. The recovered polymer was blended with virgin PP at 10 wt% and 30 wt% and processed via extrusion. The resulting materials were characterized in terms of rheological, structural, and mechanical properties to assess their processability and performance. The results demonstrate that recycled PP derived from fishing nets can be effectively reprocessed and used as a secondary raw material, enabling the development of more sustainable polymer systems while reducing dependence on virgin plastics and mitigating environmental impact.