British eyewear brand, Waterhaul, revealed its new traceability system at 100% Optical (1–3 March).
The brand produces eyewear from abandoned fishing gear and nets, the most abundant form of plastic in the ocean.
The new traceability system follows the discarded material from collection to recycled plastic pellet, to product production.
The system records the weightage of discarded fishing material the Waterhaul team collects, along with photo evidence from the collection. The material is transported to the company’s unit, where it is weighed again systematically.
The material is then sent to a partner in Scotland, where it is turned into plastic pellets, which is then recycled into Waterhaul products.
Kieran Hill, head of sales at Waterhaul, told OT: “Our traceability system is, to our knowledge, industry leading, especially in the UK.”
He explained: “We are now able to showcase traceability through the system embedded onto the website and QR codes that are going to be part of every product produced.”
End customers will be able to scan the QR code on a product to see who collected the source material, the date it was collected, and photo evidence.
Hill said: “We’re making it as easy as possible for those optical professionals to have that conversation really clearly with the people they are engaging with.”
“For practices and practice owners the best thing is clarity. There is no ambiguity around the products we produce,” he continued.
“It builds trust between practice owners, customers, and the brand,” he added.
Traceability was an area the Waterhaul team had wanted to “crack” for some time, Hill shared, explaining that the launch follows a number of key hires made in the past 12 months.
Hill told OT: “The way the world is going, and policies coming into place for manufacturing in general, transparency and traceability in supply chains is a massive topic within manufacturing and we are at the forefront of that now. Lots of brands are going to have to start looking into the sourcing and credentials of their materials.”
Making waves in materials
In order to increase the company’s impact in tackling ocean-bound plastic, Waterhaul has launched a range of products over the years: from eyewear, to litter pickers, to a wetsuit hanger. Now the company is preparing to go a step further.
“Our goal and ambition at Waterhaul has been tackling the problem of fishing gear in the environment,” Hill highlighted.
With the traceability system in place, the business has launched Traceable Marine Plastic by Waterhaul, a plastic feedstock available to brands, industries and manufacturers.
Hill said: “This year alone, we’ve already collected 21 tonnes and recycled that into pellet. Now we’re using it for our own products, but we’re also enabling other manufacturers to access that material to become part of the mission.”
“It’s very exciting. It not just allows us to have a massive impact on the problem, it allows us to scale up and put more investment into our mission and other things we do, like eyewear and litter picking equipment,” he added.
Concluding, Hill told OT: “Watch this space, because the next 12 months could be very different for us than anything we have done in the past.”
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