Marine Plastics: Innovative Solutions to Tackling Waste

This open access book reflects aims of the Blue Circular Economy (BCE) project, which focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to create value using circular economy concepts related to products and services within fishing gear recycling in the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) area. Cluster establishment and operation were carried out in collaboration with academia, industry and government agencies following a triple-helix approach. Discarded fishing gear constitutes a large part of marine plastics. Preventing future discharge of fishing gear into the ocean is a vital step in combating plastic pollution. Circular economy is one of the tools in the European Green deal, targeting waste minimisation. Closing the loop for waste fishing nets by transferring them to a resource could be a solution for preventing discharge at sea: exploring this opportunity is at the core of this book.

Chapter 1: Marine Mammals and Interactions with Debris in the Northeastern Atlantic Region: Synthesis and Recommendations for Monitoring and Research -- Chapter 2: A Conceptual Framework for Assessing and Managing Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear -- Chapter 3: Developing a circular economy for fishing gear in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Region: challenges and opportunities -- Chapter 4: Circular Business Models for SMEs in the Fishing Gear Industry -- Chapter 5: Opportunities for Circular Business Models and Circular Design related to Fishing Gear -- Chapter 6: Quadruple Helix Relational Approach to Recycling Fishing Nets: Cluster Development in the Norwegian West Coast Region -- Chapter 7: Life Cycle Assessment of Fishing and Aquaculture Gear Recycling.-Chapter 8: Engaging Volunteers as Experts in Data-Driven Research Projects and a Circular Economy: The Case of PlastOPol -- Chapter 9: The role of non-profit organizations (NGOs) in value creation: Lessons from the recycling of fishing gear in Norway -- Chapter 10: Sotenäs Marine Recycling Centre in Sweden: A Case Study related to Waste Fishing Gear -- Chapter 11: The effect of fishing nets aging on metal uptake -- Chapter 12: Possible applications for waste fishing nets in construction material -- Chapter 13: The influence of Involvement and Attribute Importance on Purchase Intentions for Green Products -- Chapter 14: Role of resource users' knowledge for developing realistic strategies for a circular economy for plastics from the Norwegian fishing sector -- Chapter 15: Concluding remarks.