Spanish plastics technology centre Aimplas (Valencia; www.aimplas.es) says it is developing two products from fishing waste, a barrier coating for food packaging from fish gelatine and cosmetic packaging from fishing nets.

As part of the European Union’s EcoeFISHent project (www.ecoefishent.eu), in line with the European Strategy for Bioplastics in a Circular Economy, the tech centre aims to create a gas barrier biopolymer coating for packaging of oxidation sensitive food (meat, fish, cheese) to substitute conventionally used fossil barrier polymers, maintaining the desired functionality. “The process will be scaled up to industrial pilot production to provide a compostable packaging for fish food,” Aimplas said.

With over EUR 15 mn in investment from the EU, the EcoeFISHent project is to provide a circular solution for recycling fish nets from fishing and aquaculture industry. “The polyethylene recovered by fishing nets will be employed by Aimplas to produce cosmetic packaging by extrusion and further injection moulding and lamination processing,” the Spanish centre explained.

Related: RepescaPlas project creates management and recovery systems for plastics waste in Spain

The five-year-long project to September 2026 has 34 partners from seven countries, the centre noted.