Does environmental policy support circularity/sustainability of fishing gear?

Abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) is a major source of marine plastic pollution, contributing to ecological, economic, and societal challenges across aquatic environments. Recent EU regulations, including the Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes require new, circular approaches for managing fishing gear waste. A sustainable value chain for circular end-of-life (EoL) fishing-gear management faces numerous challenges. This work is a part of an EU-project SEARCULAR and it aims to develop and evaluate a port-based circular solution (“Blue Point”) that enables efficient collection, sorting, and subsequent recycling of EoL fishing gear, while assessing its overall sustainability.

The work includes the identification, characterization and quantification of fishing gear waste along the Basque coast. Based on the data obtained, material simulation of future Blue Point operations was done, covering all stages: material reception, characterization, sorting, conditioning, and validation. Environmental impacts are quantified using LCA and they are combined with cost benefit analysis (CBA) to support the overall sustainability assessment of the solution.

The study found that although the ecological impact of fishing-gear waste is widely recognised as a major issue in the marine environment, the actual waste volumes are relatively low. Integrating fishing-gear waste with other local waste streams can further improve economic sustainability. LCA results are still to be finalised, but they aim to verify the benefits of circular solutions compared to linear value chains.

The study provides a blueprint for port-based, circular management of fishing gear end-of-life (EoL) that is both feasible and environmentally preferable, offering a replicable model for sustainable EoL fishing-gear management. The integration of LCA, CBA and stakeholder perspectives ensures robust, actionable recommendations for policy and practice.