Material Story: Deep Sea Green

Turning the Ocean's Most Harmful Plastic into Something Beautiful

Some materials arrive with a story already written. This one starts at sea.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fishing nets, ropes and other equipment are lost or abandoned at sea*. Known as ghost gear, these plastics continue doing exactly what they were designed to do: trapping and killing marine life long after they've been discarded.

Constructed from incredibly durable polymers, they can remain in the ocean for centuries, drifting with tides and currents while slowly breaking down into microplastics. More than 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear enter our oceans every year*, making it one of the most harmful forms of marine plastic pollution.

Beauty Over Novelty Always

At Spark & Bell, our approach to recycled materials has always been guided by purpose and the potential of reinvention. For several years we've been developing our recycled plastic finishes in our Brighton workshop, experimenting with different waste streams, colour palettes and manufacturing techniques. 

From reclaimed CD cases to post-consumer plastics, every new material has an important question to answer:  

Could this become something people would treasure for decades rather than discard?

Marine plastics were always part of that ambition, We simply hadn't found the right waste stream.  Or in this case, the right partner.

Finding the Right Material

Working with recycled materials is a long process of trial and error. 
We'd explored the possibility of incorporating marine waste from the very beginning of our journey into recycled plastics, but finding a reliable source with the right material properties, colour characteristics and supply chain transparency proved difficult.  

Much of the marine plastics salvaged naturally produce bright, highly saturated colours. Beautiful in their own right, but not quite right for the timeless aesthetic we were going for.  Then we discovered WATERHAUL.

Based in Cornwall, WATERHAUL recovers discarded fishing gear from around the UK coastline before transforming it into high-quality recycled polymers.  What immediately resonated with us wasn't just the material itself, but the philosophy behind it.  Like us, they're passionate about creating value from waste while addressing real problems in their community. 


Their pioneering batch traceability system allows every batch of recycled plastic to be traced back to where the fishing gear was recovered. Rather than becoming anonymous recycled material, every sheet carries the story of where it came from, connecting products back to the coastline that inspired them.
It felt like a natural partnership.

Inspired by the Wild North Atlantic

From the very first test pressings, the sea inspired aesthetic was clear. Not the calm, postcard version of the coast, but the wild North Atlantic. Deep emerald tones. white marbling like capping waves. The shifting movement of deep water beneath changing skies.  So the name for the finish came directly from the material - Deep Sea Green.

We've chosen two of the most popular wall lights to showcase the new finish, the "Aurora" and the "Bo" wall light.  Rather than hiding the recycled nature of the material, we try to celebrate it through a finish that feels organic, expressive and impossible to replicate exactly. Every marbled plastic disc has a unique pattern, making each light subtly different from the next.  No two are ever identical, just as no two waves ever are. 

From Coast to Coast

For us, sustainability is never just about material waste and environmental impact. It's about relationships with the people we collaborate with, the communities we’re a part of and the places that inspire our work. 

That’s why we’re bringing it full circle back to our coastal community.  £20 from every ‘Deep Sea Green’ light sold will go to
Leave No Trace Brighton, a charity we’ve long supported, helping to clear waste from the Sussex shoreline with beach cleans and contributions.

 
We think it creates a simple but meaningful circle to this story: Discarded fishing gear is recovered from Cornish waters.  It becomes a material for handcrafted lighting in Brighton, helping to support the people working to keep our coastline cleaner for the future.

Design can't solve ocean pollution on its own. But thoughtful partnerships, creative collaboration and conscious choices can all play their part.