Mechanical performance of waste fishing net fibre-reinforced gypsum composites

•Comparative study of recycled nylon and commercial fibres as gypsum reinforcement.•End-of-life nylon fishing nets recovered as feasible gypsum-reinforcement fibres.•Acceptable nylon fibre-matrix cohesion at the ITZ by microstructural analysis.•Mechanical strength improvements were achieved for most of the mixes.•Nylon-reinforced composites showed enhanced pre-failure deformability.