A relevant stream of the waste recovered in the ECONYL® Reclaiming Program comes from abandoned fishing nets

This type of pollution of the oceans poses a submerged yet very serious environmental problem. Aquafil, in collaboration with its partners, has established a unique initiative in the seas throughout Europe.

INITIATIVE
This initiative brings together Aquafil, a Dutch NGO, ECNC Group and a Dutch sock producer, Star Sock, to find a solution to the growing environmental problem of ghost fishing nets on an industry-wide scale.

ORGANIZATION
These three organizations, each with a different background, decided to join forces to tackle the problem of marine litter by recovering abandoned fishing nets to regenerate them into ECONYL® yarn for new sustainable textile products.

FAO and UNEP Estimate that there are 640,000 tons of fishing nets in the oceans
These fishing nets remain adrift for a substantial amount of time and are responsible for the accidental capture of whales, turtles, birds and other marine mammals. This problem only continues to get worse each year.