Hey Hey Nerds! It's our third week focusing on brands that give back and this week's pick is Waterhaul out of Cornwall.
Founded in 2018 by marine biologist, Harry Dennis, this company began with a purpose that truly makes a difference. With it's garage-based beginning, Waterhaul's mission was to clean pollution off the coastlines of England by recovering and repurposing plastic based marine fishing nets, aka ghost gear. We've all seen it, that bright green abandoned crap floating around the ocean that literally everything gets trapped in. Harry and 10 of his friends began recovering as much gear as possible throughout Pembrokeshire and recycle it into it's raw form to repurpose it into injection molded eyewear.
The eyewear is priced to be accessible, with their most expensive frames being their prescription sunnies averaging $140 WITH prescription lenses included, I'd have to say these prices are more than reasonable for the average consumer. The collections are designed with some of your most common shapes, sizes and colors to make this appealing to the mass market with lifetime warranties. Should you ever find yourself needing a replacement after purchase, they replace it free of charge and recycle the old frame to make it something new again, FOREVER.
In addition to their recovery efforts, Waterhaul also offers hands-on recycling workshops to educate others on the importance of the effort as well as teach interactive solutions on how to recycle old plastics into new products with portable hand-operated shredders and injection moulders to teach waste-to-resource to the community.
In the past 5 years Waterhaul has succeeded in selling over 25,000 pairs of affordable glasses sourced from over 26,000 pounds of recovered and donated ghost gear. Since 2020, Waterhaul has experienced an 8x growth and boasts no reported losses. They've managed to build a strong community of over 28,000 people committed to helping combat plastic pollution by accepting donated nets and their Newquay, Cornwall HQ.
Waterhaul's plans include plans to begin pilot programs through Wales and Ghana with hopes to expand internationally and
include partnerships with RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution); Finisterre, KIA, Rapanui, Sea Shepherd and Hurtigruten, for additional net schemes. Should you want to invest in their cause you can register your interest through crowdcube for an opportunity to become a co-owner in their company. UK investors can claim 30% tax relief on their investments as Waterhaul's mission is EIS eligible.
Whether you're hoping to learn something, wear something, or experience something; Waterhaul is a movement this East Coast gal can get behind. I hope you check them out and support this fantastic mission.
Til next week my friends!
*Iris*
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