For our 4th week giveaway we are partnering with Everybody & Everyone to giveaway their pretty epic All Good Things bag. This aptly named bag is very literally made of “all good things”, E&E partner with a textile company called EcoAlf who produce the recycled fabric to make the bag from ocean recovered plastic bottles and fishing nets using an innovative process.
HOW ON EARTH DO THEY MAKE PLASTIC INTO FABRIC WE HEAR YOU SAY?
Let’s take a quick deep dive into the benefits and process. The All Good Things bag is made using recycled plastic bottles and recovered ocean fishing nets, which are tied to EcoAlf’s ocean clean-up foundation. EcoAlf work with with fisherman across the world to recover ocean fishing nets and other plastic debris to be repurposed into textile. It’s a revolutionary technique and is soon to be replicated all over the world.
“The ECOALF FOUNDATION is a non-profit organisation whose main objective is to promote the selective recovery of waste in order to recycle, valorise and avoid its harmful effects on the environment by developing and applying new scientific and technological knowledge.”
EcoAlf
Recycled polyester and recycled nylon are the two main textiles used to make the bag. By using recycled PET (plastic bottles) to produce polyester, they are reducing water consumption by 20%, energy by 50% & CO2 by 60%. Not only are they cleaning up the world’s plastic problem, the production process is actually more economical than if they were to use virgin materials. Polyester can be recycled again and again which means it’s great for a circular economy.
Nylon is another fabric that can be recycled many times and has an extended life-span. Fishing nets can sometimes be scarce because they are hard to recover for repurposing into nylon fabric so they’re often combined with nylon leftovers from the production process. EcoAlf’s nylon is made from 25% fishing nets, 25% scrapped carpeting and 50% pre-consumer nylon waste.
EcoAlf has helped to recycle more than 80 tons of discarded fishing nets so far but there are still 650,000 tonnes of fishing nets on the bottom of the ocean. By recovering and recycling these nets into fabric rather than using virgin materials, it means less consumption of natural resources, less production of green-house emissions & it prevents marine pollution.
THE PROCESS…
The PET and fishing nets get collected, cleaned and condensed down into little plastic chips which are then formed into pellets. The pellets then get turned into yarn and then yarn into fabric! Simple really, it begs the question, why aren’t we doing this on a larger scale?
Now go and be a changemaker and get your bag by entering the week 4 challenge here!
