At Waterhaul, we work directly with fishing communities to ensure end-of-life fishing gear and marine plastics can be recovered, recycled and returned to the circular economy. A recent pilot project on the Isle of Skye shows just how powerful that collaboration can be.
The Skye Fisheries Recycling Coalition, coordinated by Fishing for Litter and supported by Sea Changers, set out to tackle a persistent challenge faced by coastal communities: what to do with end-of-life fishing rope once it reaches the shore.
Across the UK, the Fishing for Litter scheme gives fishermen a way to bring marine litter back to port at no cost. But while the system is highly effective at retrieving ghost gear and other debris from the sea, it doesn’t always provide a route to recycle those materials. In many remote communities, end-of-life rope and recovered gear still end up in landfill simply because there are no viable recycling pathways.
This is where Waterhaul stepped in.
Working alongside local fishermen, aquaculture operators and the Highland Council, Fishing for Litter supported the consolidation and recycling of fishing rope collected across the Isle of Skye. Material was gathered from harbours including Portree, Kyleakin and the Kyle of Lochalsh, alongside direct drop-offs from creel fishermen working around the Minch and the Small Isles.
Over a three week collection window in late 2025, rope from both wild fisheries and aquaculture operations was transported to Portree Recycling Centre, where it was sorted, bagged and prepared for shipment to Waterhaul’s recycling facility.
The results were really encouraging. In total, just over 9 tonnes of rope were prepared for recycling through the pilot. While a small portion of the load was unsuitable for recycling due to contamination or material complexity, the vast majority entered our marine plastics recycling streams.
All recyclable material from the project will enter Waterhaul’s Traceable Marine Plastic system, allowing it to be tracked from collection through to final product.
Using QR-based traceability, the recovered rope can be linked directly back to its origin on the Isle of Skye. This provides transparent evidence of environmental impact for organisations involved in the project and allows consumers to see exactly where recycled marine plastic products have come from.
For the fishing and aquaculture sectors that contributed material, this creates a tangible connection between responsible gear disposal and the creation of new circular products.
The pilot demonstrated that gear recycling can work in remote coastal and island communities, but it also highlighted the structural barriers that still exist.
Transport logistics, limited storage space and minimum recycling tonnage thresholds all create challenges for smaller fishing ports. Contamination in harbour waste streams can also reduce recycling efficiency, particularly when Fishing for Litter bins are used for general waste.
Certain materials remain difficult to recycle entirely. Composite gear such as lead-core lines - now increasingly used to reduce entanglement risk with marine life - currently lacks a viable recycling pathway and risks becoming a future waste challenge if solutions are not developed.
Despite these challenges, the Skye pilot clearly demonstrated the potential of collaboration between fishing communities, local authorities and specialist recyclers.
When accessible recycling routes exist, fishermen are willing to participate, local authorities are able to coordinate collections, and large volumes of marine plastic can be diverted from landfill or the ocean.
For Waterhaul, projects like this are a key part of building the infrastructure needed to support circular marine plastics at scale. By working directly with coastal communities, we can ensure end-of-life fishing gear becomes a resource rather than a waste problem.
The success of the Skye Fisheries Recycling Coalition shows that with the right partnerships in place, circular solutions for marine plastics are not only possible - they’re already happening.
We'd like to extend a big thank you to Dan Milner for providing the photography for this project. You can access the full project report here.