Suppliers
AQUAFIL
Suppliers Aquafil is the supplier behind Econyl, a regenerated nylon yarn produced entirely from recovered fishnets and other nylon waste.
Made in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Econyl is created from waste materials and textile scraps. The production process begins by recovering textile leftovers, industrial plastics, carpeting, and fishnets from the world’s oceans.
The fishnets are retrieved from various parts of the world – from the North Sea to South Asia – and include so-called ghost nets, which have been lost or abandoned at sea and pose a serious threat to marine life. The waste is collected through various initiatives and projects such as Healthy Seas, where volunteer divers recover nets from the bottom of European seas, and Net-Works™, which encourages coastal communities in the Philippines and Cameroon to collect and sell discarded fishing nets.
Through an advanced regeneration process, the nylon waste is melted and broken down into its original building blocks, known as monomers. This allows for the creation of an entirely new nylon fibre without the use of raw fossil materials. Since the material is ‘regenerated,’ it retains the inherent strength, durability, and lightness of the original nylon.