For anyone who has gone fishing, having the line snarl ranks as one of the worst experiences the sport has to offer, and it’s easily more vexing than coming home empty handed. Now, anglers in Eastbourne / UK and in many other fishing spots around the world can take out their revenge on those tangled messes by tossing them into a recycling bin dedicated to used fishing line.

The southern seacoast city just west of the English Channel now boasts five pipe-shaped bins for such refuse; according to a report in the Eastbourne Herald, the deposit site was the brainchild of Dee Harmer, a local open-water swimmer who read about such receptacles on social media.

Recent news stories tell of similar programmes in areas as diverse as the Great Lakes region of North America and the Marina Islands in the western Pacific, where local governments are erecting such bins so anglers can recycle their used lines, offering a chance for some kind of success for those spending the day in the elements without even getting a nibble.

And in the US, fishing gear supplier Berkley says that since 1990, it has recycled more than 9m miles (circa 14.5m km) worth of fishing line. “That’s enough line to fill two reels for every angler in America,” the company noted.