Italian fishermen help recycle plastic waste

SAN BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO, Italy - On a moonlit night off Italy's coast, fishermen are hauling in the usual catch: cuttlefish, red mullet and plastic waste. But this time, they won't throw the rubbish back.

The trash instead is being collected, analyzed and, where possible, recycled in a monthlong experiment to try to provide a blueprint for cleaning up the sea.

"A lot of the fishermen used to throw the rubbish back into the sea, because the law says they can't bring it to land," said Eleonora de Sabata, coordinator for Clean Sea Life, which runs the project.