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“ELECTRONIC WASTE FISHING NET RECYCLING MACHINE”

An Undergraduate Thesis Presented to the Faculty of

Computer and Engineering Studies Department
Bicol University Polangui Campus
Polangui, Albay

In Partial Fullfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

Daime Adrienne L. Obsum

Andrea N. Demorin
Francine E. Urriza
Cindy O. Nicolas
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Chapter I

The Problem

INTRODUCTION

Technology is the greatest agent of change in the modern world. While never

without risk, technological breakthroughs promise innovative solutions to the most

pressing global challenges of our time. Emerging technologies that offer a vivid glimpse

of the power of innovation to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard our

planet. Challenge in marine pollution is a global one. Pollutants may have various

biological impacts such as death, metabolic malfunction, genetic and phonological

damage. If such impacts are sub lethal, they will lead to fitness changes. Depleted

numbers of sensitive species are causing a decrease in biodiversity, and may cause

ecosystem function changes by habitat and food chain alterations and those of

productivity patterns [1]

Marine debris is a broad-scale pollutant affecting individuals of a significant

percentage of the world's marine species. Considering both entanglement and ingestion-

related records, marine debris is known to affect individuals of at least 267 species

worldwide. [2]
Its broad-scale quantification enable a crude approximation that indicates

Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) contributes less than 10

percent of global marine litter by volume, with land-based sources being the

predominate cause of marine debris in coastal areas. [3] The most common fishing gear

that threatens the marine wildlife is the Ghost nets. Ghost nets are lost or discarded

fishing nets that is used by the fishermen that drift through the sea for years or decades

that catch and kill marine species in a process called ghost fishing.
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Thus, due to these challenges the need for more efficient and effective strategies

of solving it arises. One of the strategies is to recycle the pollutants. Recycling is a

modern key of modern waste reduction. It is the process of collecting and processing

waste and turning them into new products. These can prevent the waste that is

potentially useful from reducing the consumption of fresh raw materials. Recycling the

pollutant which is the ghost fishing nets will be a great strategy to help in solving the

problem.

A community from coastal area Brgy. Bonot, Calabanga in Camraines Sur have

already tried to recycle ghost fishing nets into useful ropes. Their usual process in rope-

making are done manually wherein it is very time consuming because the valuable time

for making numbers of ropes is minimized and also this causes difficulty to them. These

negative facts causes the proponent to develop a strategy on making the process more

fast and less manpower than the usual manual process.

In this study, the proponent will propose an electronic machine that will recycle

waste fishing net. The application of microcontrollers to the machine will lead to

automation in which will help the local fabricators to lessen their burden, increase the

number of their end products and help reduce tons of ghost fishing nets under the sea,

protect our marine wildlife and the ecosystem, and this will lead to the development of a

machine that output marketable fine ropes compared to the output rope from manual

process.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The general objective of the study is to develop an electronic recycling machine that

will turn waste fishing nets into a market-ready raw materials specifically ropes in order
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to help the community improve their manual process of rope-making and help reduce the

problem in marine wildlife pollution.

The proposed study specifically aims to:

 Access the manual process of making rope for possible automation.

 Design an electromagnetic parts.

 Evaluate the acceptability of the design project in terms of its functionality

portability and efficiency.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

Ghost fishing nets causes serious environmental problems and for this reason it

is important that these wastes are being recycled. Coastal people’s implementation of

the manual process of rope – making by using fishing is a great idea of recycling.

Developing a manually operated recycling machine of the fishnets will help them reduce

manpower and effort in performing manually and increase the production rate of the

product that will serve as their livelihood.

The electronic machine will be use to replace the manual process of rope-making

using waste fishing nets. This will composed of main components and these are electric

motors, microcontroller, power supply, buck converter, linear slides, heat inductor and

relay. Setting up the waste fishing nets into the machine and the extraction of the end

product will be manually operated. The length of the design machine will be 306 cm and

the time duration of the machine to generate a product will be less than the manual

process which takes more than fifteen (15) minutes. The machine will be evaluated and

analyze by the researchers to determine the effectiveness of the machine.

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The researchers delimited the study to generate a limited length of end product.

Also, generate exactness of size in relation to its diameter.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The researchers intend to automate the recycling process of the waste fishing

nets into useful ropes that will cause benefits to others. The most beneficial to the result

of the study are the following:

Community. The study will help the community from Camarines Sur especially

in Brgy. Bonot, Calabanga to minimize their time in making ropes manually wherein it is

time consuming and this involves a lot of effort to finish a rope.

Industry. The study will contribute to the rope-making industry within the

economy and also improve the development of the urban area from the exportation of

the processed ropes.

Environment. The study will help lessen the fishnets that has been abandoned

or lost by the fisherman that entangle the marine mammals, coral reefs and other

creatures causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation.

Researchers. The study will allow the researchers to discover and gain new

knowledge. Also, apply the concept and theories that they learn all throughout the years

of studying the field of their course with the help of their professors.

Future Researchers. The study will help the future researchers as a reference

data in conducting new researches and evaluating the effectiveness of other related

findings.
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Notes

[1] Dahms, H. U. (2014, May 21). The grand challenges in marine pollution
research. Retrieved from Frontiers:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2014.00009/full (2017
September 18)
[2] Laist, D. W. (1997). Impacts of Marine Debris: Entanglement. In J. M. Coe, & D.
B. Rogers, Marine Debris: Sources, Impacts, and Solutions (p. 102). New York:
Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA.
(2017 September 18)
[3] Huntington, G. M., & Huntington, T. ( 2009). Abandoned, Lost or Otherwise
Discarded. United Nations Environment Programme, 1.) 2017 September 18)