SIST EN 17988-1:2025

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-februar-2025
Krožna zasnova ribolovnega orodja in opreme za akvakulturo - 1. del: Splošne
zahteve in navodila
Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment - Part 1: general requirements
and guidance
Kreislaufwirtschaft von Fischfanggeräten und Aquakulturausrüstungen - Teil 1:
Allgemeine Anforderungen und Leitlinien
Circularité et recyclabilité des engins de pêche et des équipements d’aquaculture -
Partie 1 : Exigences générales et lignes directrices
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 17988-1:2024
ICS:
13.020.20 Okoljska ekonomija. Environmental economics.
Trajnostnost Sustainability
65.150 Ribolov in ribogojstvo Fishing and fish breeding
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 17988-1
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
November 2024
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 13.020.20; 65.150
English Version
Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
- Part 1: General requirements and guidelines
Circularité et recyclabilité des engins de pêche et des Kreislaufwirtschaft von Fischfanggeräten und
équipements d'aquaculture - Partie 1 : Exigences Aquakulturausrüstungen - Teil 1: Allgemeine
générales et lignes directrices Anforderungen und Leitlinien
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 6 October 2024.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2024 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 17988-1:2024 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Outline of the EN 17988 series . 6
5 Overview of plastics use in fishing gear and aquaculture equipment . 7
6 General principles of circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment . 8
6.1 Circular economy transition process. 8
6.2 Waste hierarchy and circular economy . 8
6.3 Life cycle perspective . 9
6.4 Resource and material efficiency . 9
6.5 Optimizing strategies in product design and business models . 10
6.6 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes . 10
7 Stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities in the value network . 10
7.1 Value network . 10
7.2 Key actors and their roles . 11
7.2.1 Producers of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment . 11
7.2.2 Delivery and installation stakeholders. 12
7.2.3 Users: fishers or aquaculturists . 12
7.2.4 Retrievers of ALD fishing gear and aquaculture equipment from seas . 12
7.2.5 End-of-use fishing gear or aquaculture equipment collectors . 12
7.2.6 Waste handlers . 13
7.2.7 Waste pre-processer . 13
7.2.8 Sorters . 13
7.2.9 Recyclers . 13
7.2.10 Authorities. 13
7.2.11 Other Stakeholders . 14
8 General approaches for increasing the circularity of fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment . 14
8.1 General design aspects. 14
8.2 Collection at end-of-use . 14
8.3 Reuse and preparing for reuse . 15
8.4 (High-quality) recycling . 15
8.5 Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded (ALD) fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment . 16
Bibliography . 17

European foreword
This document (EN 17988-1:2024) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 466 “Circularity
and recyclability of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be
withdrawn at the latest by May 2025.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CEN by the European
Commission (M/574). The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests
for its Member States.
This document is part of the EN 17988 series.
The EN 17988 series consists of the following parts, under the general title Circular design of fishing gear
and aquaculture equipment:
— Part 1: General requirements and guidelines
— Part 2: User manuals and labelling
— Part 3: Technical requirements and guidelines
— Part 4: Environmental and circularity requirements and guidelines
— Part 5: Circular business models
— Part 6: Requirements and guidelines for digitalization of information of components of fishing gear
and aquaculture equipment
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North
Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
As part of the European Green Deal, launched in 2019, the European Commission introduced measures
to move to a climate neutral and circular economy, together with a digital transition. One of the targets
in the transition to a circular economy was to reduce the amount of waste released into the environment
by decreasing the amount of waste generated, increasing the amount of waste collected and re-
introducing the materials regenerated from waste into the production of new products.
Specifically, the accumulation of plastics in marine and other aquatic environments were addressed in
two directives:
— The revised Port Reception Facilities (PRF) Directive [1] encourages fishers and aquaculturists to
bring not only their own end-of-use gear but also bring ashore abandoned, lost or otherwise
discarded (ALD) fishing gear and aquaculture equipment, thus encouraging waste to be carried back
to port.
— The Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive [2], which lays down rules concerning different plastic
products, including fishing gear and aquaculture equipment containing plastics, and sets
requirements to the Member States to establish Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes.
Concerning fishing gear, it also contains rules on minimum national annual collection rates, together
with reporting on fishing gear placed on the market and waste fishing gear collected in ports.
In 2021, the standardization request M/574 on the circular design of fishing gear [3] was passed by the
European Commission and the parliament and accepted by CEN, which forms the basis for this series of
documents (EN 17988 series). While the term ‘fishing gear’ is used predominantly in the SUP Directive
and M/574, both documents encompass aquaculture equipment.
The purpose of this series of documents is to provide stakeholders with requirements, recommendations
and guidelines to address the different aspects of circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment containing plastics, encourage preparing for reuse and facilitate recyclability at end-of-use.
These requirements are intended to be applied from the design phase across the entire life cycle of the
fishing gear and aquaculture equipment. This includes but is not limited to: manufacturing, use,
maintenance, repair, collection, sorting, preparation for reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, disposal,
uptake of recycled content and recycling.
Although this standard is written for fishing gear and aquaculture equipment containing plastics, the
requirements, recommendations and guidelines are also applicable to other materials.
This series of documents does not address other important design criteria such as fishing or farming
efficiency. When implementing the requirements, recommendations and guidelines provided in these
documents, balanced trade-offs between all relevant criteria need to be taken into account.
This series of documents aims to contribute to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
[4]:
— 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure,
— 12 Responsible consumption and production,
— 14 Life below water, in particular target 14.1: ‘By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine
pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient
pollution.’
This part of the series provides the reader with requirements, recommendations and guidelines for
changing from a linear economy to a circular one, by introducing general principles of circular design for
fishing gear and aquaculture equipment, situating them in the current context of the European circular
economy. This part also includes a full outline of all parts of the standard and how they relate to each
other.
This document also specifies the stakeholders and their relationships with each other in the value
network as well as for the different parts of the series of standards to which this part belongs.
Note to the reader on normative language: In this document, the following verbal forms are used in
accordance with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations Part 3, Clause 7:
— “shall” indicates a requirement;
— “should” indicates a recommendation;
— “may” indicates a permission;
— “can” indicates a possibility or a capability;
— “must” indicates an external constraint.
1 Scope
This document gives guidance on the general principles of circular design for fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment containing plastics. It specifies the general requirements, recommendations and guidelines
for establishing a circular economy for these products.
This document also identifies stakeholders and their relationships in a general context.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
EN 17988 (all parts), Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
CEN/TS 18101, Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment - Terms and definitions
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in CEN/TS 18101 apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
4 Outline of the EN 17988 series
This series of documents highlights the different aspects of circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment containing plastics. The requirements, recommendations and guidelines herein are intended
to be applied from the design phase across the entire life cycle of the fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment. This includes but is not limited to: manufacturing, use, maintenance, repair, collection,
sorting, preparation for reuse, recycling, remanufacture, disposal, uptake of recycled content and
recycling.
Part 1 provides the reader with requirements, recommendations and guidelines for changing from a
linear economy to a circular one, by introducing general principles of circular design for fishing gear and
aquaculture equipment and situating them in the current context of the European circular economy. Part
1 also specifies the stakeholders and their relationships with each other in the value network as well as
for the different parts of the EN 17988 series.
Part 2 specifies the requirements, recommendations and guidelines for user manuals and labelling to be
issued with circular designed fishing gear and aquaculture equipment. These will, next to assisting the
producer (manufacturer or importer) with fulfilling legal requirements, enable traceability and proper
management during the lifetime of the fishing gear and aquaculture equipment.
Part 3 provides technical requirements, recommendations and guidelines to be applied from the design
phase across the entire life cycle of the fishing gear and aquaculture equipment, including development
and selection of materials and components, the manufacturing, assembly and disassembly, as well as the
use and maintenance. These technical requirements also encompass recommendations and guidelines
for the repair, remanufacturing and refurbishing, storage and transport; and finally end-of-use including
recycling.
Part 4 addresses the environmental and circularity requirements, recommendations and guidelines
together, as these two are interrelated and interdependent. The circular economy is a sustainable
ecosystem which focuses on preventing and reducing waste, keeping the value retention of fishing gear
and aquaculture equipment at its highest level, while preventing and reducing its environmental impacts
throughout its life cycle. It contributes to a more sustainable world, but not all sustainability initiatives
contribute to circularity. Therefore, part 4 provides requirements, recommendations and guidelines
towards a more efficient use of materials and resources, as well as reducing the amount of plastics lost as
waste, while delivering the best environmental outcome.
Part 5 addresses the development of circular business models for fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment. Circular business models are intended to keep a product in its original intended use for as
long as possible, as well as to provide business opportunities with other sectors. Such interactions enable
the development of completely new market and cooperation opportunities. Part 5 provides supporting
guidelines for EPR schemes addressing fishing gear and aquaculture equipment.
Part 6 addresses requirements for the hardware, software and systems for digitalization of product
information of circular designed fishing gear and aquaculture equipment. Marking, labelling and
information sharing are the key elements of digitalization. The availability and transparency of shared
information enables the interoperability across value network participants and can lead to better use of
assets.
5 Overview of plastics use in fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
Various types of plastics are used for different types of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment. Table 1
presents a general overview of the most important polymer types and examples for their usage.
Table 1 — Main plastics in fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
Main plastics in fishing gear and Examples for usage in fishing gear and
aquaculture equipment aquaculture equipment
Polyamide (PA), Ropes, nets and twines
Predominately polyamide 6 (PA6)
Polypropylene (PP)/ polyethylene (PE) Ropes, nets and twines. Floats and buoys,
tubing and piping
Polyester (PES) Ropes, nets and twines
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) Trawl doors, dredges, small parts and cladding
Expanded polystyrene (EPS, foam) Insulation, floats and buoys
Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) Floats and buoys
Polyurethane (PU) Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) coatings,
floats and buoys
Polyvinylchloride (PVC) Aquaculture cages, tubing and piping
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) Aquaculture valves, pipe fixtures
High-modulus polyethylene (HMPE) Ropes, nets and twines
Glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) Aquaculture
These plastics, and the fibres or other components prepared from them, have well-defined characteristics
and are often combined, either in form of mixed materials or mixtures of materials to enhance their
suitability for the different types of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment or parts thereof. If the
composition of the plastic components is not provided by the manufacturer, one needs to use specialised
equipment (e.g. near-infrared radiation (NIR) spectroscopy or density separation processes) to (a)
identify the composition and (b) separate the components. This poses a challenge to recycling the plastic
components in fishing gear and aquaculture equipment into secondary materials of high quality and
purity.
Additional challenges towards recycling of the plastic materials and components of fishing gear and
aquaculture equipment are:
— the combination with non-plastic materials (e.g. metal, wood or minerals), some of which possibly
being toxic or unrecyclable (e.g. lead shot in sink lines);
— contamination from use, with e.g. sand, salt or biological material;
— additives to the materials and/ or components which are particularly problematic in terms of end-
of-life treatment, especially the substances of very high concern (SVHC) and persistent organic
pollutants (POP) classified under REACH [5].
6 General principles of circular design of
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