Recycled
Nylon
Let’s Take Action Now!
Producing nylon creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
We believe in the wise old saying that ‘Prevention is better than cure’. Our entire business model is based on this principle. We collect plastic waste before it becomes pollution, tainting our world for hundreds of years. In our mission to honor UN SDG # 14 we focus on prevention.
After polyester, nylon (polyamide/PA6) is the second most common synthetic material in the textile industry due to its outstanding bearing and wear properties. This makes it ideal for the vast majority of fishing nets. Unfortunately, a common practice amongst fishermen is to throw end of life fishing nets into the sea. These so-called ‘ghost nets’ pose a huge problem to all marine life. According to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) up to a million tons of ghost fishing nets enter the oceans each year. These are harmful to every form of aquatic life including fish, birds and corals.
Dumped fishing gear is in fact, the biggest ocean polluter. Greenpeace estimates that this waste, known as ‘ghost gear’ makes up 10% of ocean plastic pollution worldwide. Netting is deadly for sea animals as they get trapped in it and cannot fight their way to freedom. Without official power to stop this form of ocean pollution, we tackle the issue by reducing the existing waste and creating new, new products with it. As with our other methods of recycling plastic; we do what no one else dares or cares to do. We tackle the problem at the source and prevent new nets from entering our fragile seas by buying these nets at their end of life from fishermen. We put a value on what has previously been seen as worthless. Other peoples’ trash is our treasure and we put value on these resources. Something is only worthless if it cannot be reused.
We live by our mission to relieve the planet of the plastic problem by innovating products made from recycled plastics. We are doing exactly that with our latest creation of recycled nylon products. Our buy-back program creates an incentive for fishermen to not discard old fishing nets in the ocean, and bring them instead back to the port as an extra income source. We are making the worthless, worthwhile and giving it new life. We have seen our unique system create a new source of pride in the fishermen we buy from. Their work is daunting at the best of times and they take pride in knowing that they are now contributing to a cleaner world by selling their nets to make new recycled products.
In our mission to relieve the planet of the plastic problem, we investigated how to gather and reuse these otherwise harmful nets. It is not an easy process. Nylon yarns made from recycled fishing nets present several challenges since the material tends to lose some physical properties during the recycling process. After testing 12 different samples, we identified a suitable source of PA6 (nylon resin) from recycled fishing nets. At present we are making lightweight jackets from this new recycled nylon fabric. For more information contact the waste2wear sales agent in your region.
Get in touch with us today and let us guide your way towards sustainability!
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