From abandoned fishing nets washing up on British shores to beautiful, functional plant pots - this is the transformation story of Ecotribo. Founded after a life-changing beach clean-up experience on a Thai island, this innovative Cornwall-connected company has pioneered a unique approach to ocean conservation, turning marine waste into premium sustainable products.
Working with coastal cleanup crews from Cornwall to Scotland, Ecotribo's solar-powered workshop transforms tons of discarded nets into durable goods that celebrate the raw beauty of reclaimed ocean plastics. We caught up with the founders to discover what's possible when creativity meets conservation!
Your plant pots and products are made from abandoned fishing nets found around the British Isles. How did you first recognise this opportunity to transform marine waste into beautiful products, and start Ecotribo?
We participated in a beach clean-up mission on a remote Thai island about 10 years ago. We realised that the 60 bags we had collected were going to be incinerated, causing further devastation with toxic fumes. We resolved to find a way to recycle these plastics into beautiful items, thereby transforming throwaway, ‘worthless’ plastic into a valuable resource.
Can you walk us through the journey of these fishing nets that become beautiful products?
We work with fantastic people based all around the UK coasts. These nets are enormous and can take an immense amount of people power to heft them off the rocks. We work with crews such as Clean Ocean Sailing in Cornwall, Odyssey Innovation, Captain Paul Watson UK, and the Devon and Cornwall Councils.
We then cleaned and shredded the nets for many years with a tiny shredder to prove the concept, ready for injection moulding into our products. Initially, we used a small ‘Precious Plastic’ injection machine, crafting our products from beach plastics we collected. These days, we have scaled up significantly, shredding tons of nets and utilising large-scale injection moulding machines, all with the help of a solar-powered production facility.
Could you tell us about your Cornwall connections and how they contribute to your coastal cleanup efforts?
We have worked with Clean Ocean Sailing from the start, who are based in Gweek on the south coast of Cornwall, collecting with a minimum carbon footprint in canoes and sailing boats. We support COS with monthly donations from the sale of our products, and to support further beach cleanups, outreach programs, and Blue Mind therapy, using the sea to heal people and the planet.
As we scale, we also collaborate with Odyssey Innovation and Cornwall and Devon County councils, who have set up the first Harbour Point pick-up stations for redundant nets. This free scheme helps fishermen redeem their nets rather than pay for disposal, benefiting our coastal communities.
We are also involved in the Cornwall ADLFG Response Group. This is a local group that utilises Facebook and a WhatsApp group to create a fantastic alert system, informing the community when a ghost net is found. These amazing local people then respond to the alert and work together to remove the net from the shoreline.
How is sustainability integrated at each stage of production?
We have always been committed to using local waste streams, processing nets retrieved from UK shores and recycling and manufacturing them entirely in the UK. Made locally from local waste is the most sustainable way of manufacturing, and ensures we reduce our carbon footprint to a minimum.
While it’s been a slower journey, rather than using well-established processing facilities in Europe, we were determined to find partners in the UK. As an island nation, acknowledging the climate crisis and adopting a long-term view to nurture local green employment, we have pledged to take the lowest carbon-emission route possible.
Many British manufacturers currently rely on imported plastic "nurdles" - small pellets used in the production of plastics. Unfortunately, these nurdles are often lost at sea during shipping accidents, contributing significantly to ocean pollution. To combat this, we are committed to manufacturing locally using materials sourced along the UK coastlines.
This approach not only supports our local green economy but also protects wildlife by reducing the risk of marine pollution. Plastic nurdles, along with discarded fishing gear, are among the leading causes of plastic waste in our oceans. At our solar-powered workshop, we've been able to transform this unpredictable - and sometimes messy - waste material into a durable, sustainable product. Our process can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 80% compared to using virgin plastics.
How do you balance creativity and functionality when developing your sustainable products?
Plastic has understandably earned a reputation for being disposable, single-use, and certainly not ‘premium’. We intentionally set out to use our creative backgrounds to design unique, beautiful and functional products.
At Ecotribo, we strike a balance between functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability by designing products that are practical, beautiful, and environmentally responsible. By managing production in-house, we can trace every step of the journey - from beach clean-up to final product - and continuously optimise our energy and water usage to minimise environmental impact. Each item is designed with circularity in mind: they’re recyclable again, and made to last, with as little waste as possible. We celebrate the raw beauty of reclaimed plastics, using natural colours and textures to reflect their ocean origins and make sustainability desirable, not just responsible.
How do you track and communicate the journey of each fishing net from sea to finished product?
Ty’s concept of geolocating the nets via a QR code on each pot served several worthwhile objectives. First, highlighting the heroic efforts of the teams that recovered the nets. It also highlights the risk to wildlife that should naturally thrive in the area of the find: for example, the Skomer island net was pulled out of a puffin sanctuary.
The marketplace is awash with greenwashing, and people are rightly jaded by overpromises from big corporations racing to leverage ‘eco’ credentials for their commercial gain. So our first batches from Balnakiel Bay in Northern Scotland and Gunwalloe Cove in Cornwall became our first batches of pots and our first stories to tell. We are all so hungry for a demonstration of what CAN be done creatively with our waste. The customer feedback from our scheme is overwhelmingly positive, demonstrating how a simple, truthful idea can empower our collective imagination and help alleviate overwhelm and environmental despair.
What challenges have you faced in maintaining sustainable practices as a growing brand, and how have you overcome them?
The positive aspect of scaling when waste is our material source is that we can utilise more of it and protect our environment more. From the outset, our mission was to create a sustainable brand at its core. We started in a solar-powered workshop using local waste and manufactured locally, which ensures we are as kind to the planet as possible. We are currently creating another production facility in Devon, which is an exciting development. We will again be using solar, and by increasing the size of the machinery, we will be able to optimise production even further.
What makes the National Maritime Museum Cornwall an ideal place to stock Ecotribo's products?
Having Ecotribo's products featured in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall shop is a tremendous honour and a perfect alignment of values. The museum's commitment to ocean sustainability and its celebration of British maritime heritage resonate deeply with our mission to transform ocean waste into functional, beautiful, and sustainable products made in the United Kingdom.
By partnering with the museum, we not only reach an audience passionate about the sea but also contribute to a shared narrative of environmental stewardship and innovation. This collaboration amplifies our efforts to promote a local circular economy and inspire others to see the potential in repurposed coastal materials.
Why is ocean conservation important to you personally, and to your business?
We know more about the moon and Mars than we do about the depths of our waters. Ocean conservation is deeply personal to us. Ty grew up by the sea, surfing since the age of seven, and we've always felt a powerful connection to the ocean, spending our lives in or near its healing waters. It’s where we find peace, inspiration, and a sense of purpose. When you love something, you want to protect it. Over the years, we have witnessed the heartbreaking impact of pollution on the very places we love, from plastic-strewn beaches to marine life caught in discarded fishing nets. That emotional connection drives everything we do.
For our business, ocean conservation isn’t just a cause - it’s our foundation. Ecotribo was born from a desire to turn the tide on ocean waste. We saw an opportunity to create beautiful, useful products from what others saw as rubbish. By collecting and transforming ocean plastic into sustainable goods, we're not only reducing pollution but also showing that business can be a force for good. Our mission is to protect our coastlines while promoting a circular economy that respects nature, demonstrating that businesses can be both environmentally responsible and beneficial to communities.
Ultimately, ocean conservation means safeguarding something sacred -for future generations, for biodiversity, and the soul of our planet.
Small, sustainable businesses like Ecotribo play a vital role by leading with action, which inspires innovation and community. We’re deeply embedded in the local landscape - collecting waste from Cornish and Devon shores, collaborating with cleanup crews, and producing everything in our solar-powered workshop. That local-first mindset reduces emissions, supports green jobs, and builds resilience within the region.
But more than that, we help shift the narrative. By turning ocean waste into beautiful, valuable products, we show that sustainability doesn’t mean compromise - it can be creative, inspiring, and commercially viable. We also collaborate with other local makers, artists, and organisations to build a shared culture of environmental responsibility. When people see what’s possible on a small scale, it sparks bigger change, and that’s how movements begin.
Shop the Ecotribo range in the Museum Gift Shop here.
With thanks to Tyrone and Carrie, Ecotribo.
Images: Pete Cox