Woman aims to recycle old wetsuits into pet products

A woman in north Devon is aiming to recycle old wetsuits into pet products to prevent them from going to landfill.

Katy Taylor was inspired to take on the project after moving to Appledore and walking her dog on the beach. She wants to turn the wetsuits into dog treat bags and pet harnesses.

The seamstress posted a request for old wetsuits on Facebook in April and said the response was "unbelievable".

She hopes to work with councils to create special wetsuit bins at beaches.

Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Ms Taylor said she realised holiday makers were buying boards and wetsuits locally, which "unfortunately end up just in the public bins".

"When I moved to the coast I also got a rescue dog, we spend a lot of time on the beach and so what I came across was all his harnesses and bags for treats would all just get full of sand and wet," she said.

"It suddenly dawned on me that a lot of pet care products are made with neoprene.

"Even when wetsuits are damaged they have amazing zips, and there's a huge amount of neoprene still left that's really good quality but maybe isn't good enough to be a wetsuit anymore, so I'm repurposing it to turn into canine products."

Ms Taylor says there are 500,000 surfers in the UK, and estimates a "huge amount of landfill" if each replaced their wetsuits every two years on average.

She said: "At the moment I've got a lot of wetsuits, I'm working with some prototypes and then what I'm going to do is I'm hoping to speak to some councils to see if we can organise putting bins at the really high surf beaches like Westward Ho! and Croyde to stop them being put into general bins.

"So far I've made a couple of in roads and everyone's been really positive."

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