Blue Peter presenters have nothing on Cornish inventor Peter Smith.

Forget a to-scale recreation of Thunderbirds' hide-out Tracy Island or an African dream catcher made from cotton buds, Mr Smith's latest creation is expected to leave a valuable legacy – the natural landscape.

Formed entirely from recyclable materials, the bankshore is helping negate the impact of the incoming tide, reducing the threat of erosion and coastal damage. And it has just been unveiled at Talland Bay, near Looe, in South East Cornwall, where the raging water is known to ravage the coastline.

Mr Smith, who has been inventing since he was 13 years old, said: "This device is very simple, but it could stop large amounts of coastal erosion.

"The beauty of it is that it is created from scrap materials which would probably have no purpose anyway. This way, they are being saved from the scrapheap or being burnt, and are having a positive impact on the environment."

The bankshore works in a similar way to a traditional gabion and is created by fashioning a series of holes into a stack of redundant tractor tyres, piled on top of each other and fixed with old telephone cables for stability.

They are then filled with aggregate to give them extra weight and are positioned where the land meets the sea. In total, they weigh about one-and-a-quarter tonnes.

Mr Smith has worked with the Environment Agency and students from Plymouth University to develop the project for Talland Bay.

He said: "I think this will be a great success. The coastline around Cornwall is fantastic, and it deserves protecting.

"The bankshore, which is made from recycled materials, not only protects that coastline but it does so in an environmentally-friendly way. Rubber is a versatile material to use and I don't think it is valued as highly as it should be."

It has taken ten years for Mr Smith's bankshore to come to fruition. For all of that time, however, he has had to battle Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer.

He said: "It has been difficult at times, but there are good days and bad days. I am an inventor, it is something I have to do and the bankshore project has been an exciting one for me.

"I prefer to be out there, doing things, annoying people and inventing things, rather than wallowing about the cancer.

"This project has given me real drive and focus, and, hopefully, will prove successful."

Mr Smith said his invention could become increasingly important as the climate changes in coming years.

He said: "We are going to have some really bad days in the next five years. People are beginning to realise that this planet is changing, that we will have more weather issues to deal with, and sea levels are rising.

"I think the bankshore could help protect against that, particularly in countries where a slight change in sea levels can have a disastrous impact."