In response to the global interest and efforts towards reducing plastic use and promoting resource recycling, there is a growing need to establish methods for recycling discarded fishing gear. In Korea, various technologies are being developed to recycle discarded fishing gear, but significant technical and policy challenges still remain. In particular, biodegradable gill nets require a pre-treatment process to separate biodegradable materials from other substances and to remove salt before recycling. Therefore, this study aims to develop a pre-treatment device for recycling biodegradable gill nets and to evaluate the feasibility of recycling them.

Recently, as the global problem of marine debris and marine plastics is getting serious, various ways to solve them have been proposed, and the use of the biodegradable fishing gear is proposed as an alternative. Currently, 13 types of biodegradable fishing gears are available, but their penetration rate is only 8.7%. However, the need for the use of the biodegradable fishing gear is growing as awareness of protecting marine ecosystems is growing. Therefore, in this study, the economic effects of the expansion of biodegradable fishing gear distribution in Korea's coastal areas were analyzed through the conservation of marine ecosystems, augmentation of fisheries resources, and augmentation of fishing efficiency. According to the analysis, the economic effects of 52,795 million won, 105,590 million won, and 158,385 million won was generated as the distribution of biodegradable fishing gear were expanded to 10%, 20% and 30% across all gill net and trap.