Cornish business turns old fishing nets into sunglasses

30 April 2019, 12:06 | Updated: 30 April 2019, 12:18

Waterhaul is removing abandoned fishing nets form our beaches.

The social enterprise is the brainchild of Harry Dennis, a surfer and marine biologist. 

They've been out collecting abandoned fishing nets, also known as ghost gear, from our beaches. 

It's them sent to a specialist recycling plant, where the plastic is used to make frames for sunglasses. 

Waterhaul is just launching the first range of frames, after spending the winter collecting nets from Cornish beaches. 

Every year 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets are lost or discarded in the ocean, and approximately 100,000 whales, sea lions and seals are killed by ghost gear every year. 

Waterhaul's founder, Harry Dennis says "Throughout my travels; surfing, diving and exploring, discarded fishing gear was a ubiquitous sight on every strandline from the Coral Triangle to Norway’s arctic circle. 

"I thought that there must be a way to redesign the systems causing this problem.

"Waterhaul’s mission is to turn this waste into a resource. 

"Fishing nets are made from incredibly high-quality plastics - they’re an obvious choice for recycling.

They're hoping to create demand for this unique material, so nets don’t end up abandoned in our oceans.

The company has modelled their systems around a "circular economy" concept. 

To prevent any of their sunglasses ever ending up in a landfill, Waterhaul offer to buy back your old or damaged frames and recycle these into new sunglasses.