All buoy, aquaculture ropes and fishing net samples were processed using the granulator. This non-adjustable machine uses three large rotating blades to transform large materials into minuscule granules.

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This research is the first to put plastic fishing gear into the granulator at Victoria University; therefore, some precautions were made before using the machine. Due to the fact the homogenous slabs of plastic fishing gear and buoy samples are quite large, they were cut on the bandsaw into smaller, 15mm long strips of plastic as a precaution, and by doing so, the machine did not get clogged by any of the materials.

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Each sample was granulated on its own, and the interior blades had to be cleaned thoroughly after every material sample so that no contamination amongst batches occurred.