Net gains: how India trawlers’ plastic catch is helping to rebuild roads

The waste caught by fishing boats used to be thrown back into the sea but in Kerala it is now turned into black gold

For years, plastic caught by fishing communities on the Kollam coast in India's southern state of Kerala was thrown back into the water, damaging aquatic ecosystems and killing fish.

But fishers are spearheading an innovative initiative to clean up the ocean - along with their daily hauls of fish, they pull in and collect the waste that gets enmeshed in their nets.