Advances in technologies across the marine plastic value chain in Europe: A critical review

Marine Plastic Pollution (MPP) is widely recognised as a significant global challenge, driven by unsustainable plastic production, ineffective waste management, and the long-term persistence of plastics in marine environments. MPP has become increasingly widespread across oceans, along coastlines and on the seafloor, resulting in an urgent need for the development of technologies capable of advancing a Circular Economy (CE) for marine-derived products. Advances in cleaner production technologies, including satellite and drone-based remote sensing, autonomous robotic platforms, and machine-vision systems, have improved the efficiency of plastic debris identification, classification, and recovery in complex marine environments. Similarly, innovations in downstream sorting, such as electrostatic separation, selective dissolution, hyperspectral imaging (HSI), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven classification, are enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of processing MPP. The review evaluates mechanical recycling methods with particular emphasis on recent advances in extrusion, moulding technologies, and additive manufacturing for converting MPP into high-value secondary materials in a CE framework in Europe. These technological developments demonstrate the potential for establishing viable and scalable valorisation routes. Overall, the review outlines key opportunities to strengthen a sustainable CE and guide future research and industrial adoption. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive examination of state-of-the-art technologies across the entire marine plastics value chain in Europe, from detection and recovery to separation, identification, and recycling.