Worldwide, high plastic consumption leads to huge waste production. Macro and
microplastic litter affects habitats everywhere, but especially marine environments.
Unfortunately, plastic is particularly difficult to retrieve from the sea, since it tends to break
up into smaller pieces due to wind, water movement and solar irradiation. Hence, its end-oflife
handling and management has become a major issue. Most of the time recovered plastic
waste is landfilled or burnt, since it is composed of an assortment of different polymers
and/or has been polluted by salt or other marine substances.
For these reasons, new recycling methods for marine litter, pursuing cleaner production
criteria, are urgently required. This article presents a brand-new sustainable material, an
eco-friendly foam made of waste microplastics incorporated into a bio-matrix. This novel
open-cell material can be used as acoustic and thermal insulation for industrial, civil and
maritime applications. Thus, an in-depth characterization is depicted, providing evidence of
very good insulation properties and revealing how microplastics can be used to customize
final acoustic and thermal performances.
