OAHU, Hawaii -- Abandoned fishing nets and other derelict fishing gear recovered in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is powering homes on Oahu.

In late September, the NOAA research ship, Oscar Elton Sette, returned to Oahu with 40 tons of nets and other fishing gear that had been wreaking havoc on coral reefs.

For years, the federal government has funded the removal operations in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

"It kind of acts like, almost like a catcher's mitt and just catches everything there," said Marine Debris Operations manager Kyle Koyanagi.

The effort to save the reefs and sea life hundreds of miles away is generating energy.

Schnitzer Steel Hawaii hauls the nets to their recycling site and then cuts them up free of charge as a community service, something they have done since 2002.

The work is time consuming.

"What we have is an employee sitting at our hydraulic sheers cutting the nets for eight hours into 12 inch size pieces," said Rene Mansho, with Schnitzer Steel Hawaii.

Schnitzer trucks the chopped nets two blocks to the HPower plant where it's burned and converted into energy.

"For 40 tons of nets, we can generate about 20 megawatts of power so that will power about 40 homes at any one time," said HPower Facility Business Manager Rodney Smith.

For the last seven years, the program's recycled 750 tons of fishing nets.

That has not only preventing all that material from going into the landfill, it's also powered 300 Oahu homes each year, according to HPower officials.