Our journey towards sustainability was long. It started in 1990 facing many challenges in the years. When researching for end of life goods made of nylon 6 to produce ECONYL® nylon, we figured out that fishing nets were an important source of the ingredient.
There are two different types of fishing nets we are dealing with: nets from the aquaculture and fishing industries and nets recovered through the Healthy Seas foundation.
We got in contact with the fishing industry to learn more about it and we found out that a large amount of fishing nets is produced for fish farms and that they are replaced frequently. We started collaborating with as many fish farms as possible and started collecting the nets.
While working with the fishing industry we discovered the relevant environmental problem of the ghost nets in the seas and oceans. Here is where the Healthy Seas Foundation came out.
Healthy Seas, a journey from waste to wear, is an initiative that Aquafil founded in 2013 with another business (Star Sock) and an NGO.
The purpose of the initiative is to clean the oceans and seas of marine litter such as derelict fishnets responsible for the needless death of marine animals.
The fishing nets recovered in collection points from the sea bed by volunteer divers are first cleaned and sorted and then sent to Aquafil’s Slovenian regeneration plant.
Visit healthyseas.org for more info and to support Healthy Seas activities.
The fishing nets washing line is one of the most impressive parts of the ECONYL® Regeneration System, and a good example of Aquafil commitment to face and overtake the many challenges of post-consumer products recycling.