Aquafil, ECNC Land & Sea Group and Star Sock have together established the "Healthy Seas, a Journey from Waste to Wear: Initiative.

The main objective of this Healthy Seas Iniative is to remove waste, in particular fishing nets, and other marine litter from the seas and oceans for the purpose of creating healthier seas and recycling marine litt.er

Recovered fishing nets are still all too often dumped into landfills or burned, but as part of the Healthy Seas Initiative they will be transformed and regenerated into ECONYL yarn, a high-quality raw material used to create beautiful new products such as socks, swimwear, carpets and more.

The dumping of fishing nets is an open wound in our ecosystem. According to a join report by FAO and UNEP, there are approximately 640,00 tons of abandoned fishing nets in the oceas, accounting for one0tenth of all marine litter. These nets remain in the marine ecosystem for hundreds of years and are responsible for accidental capture of dolphins and other animals, such as turtles and marine birds, which often die once trapped.

The Healthy Seas Initiative will be launched in three main phases and the detailed description of the relevant action plan will be made public before the end of April.

In the first phase, the Healthy Seas approch will be implemented in three pilot regions in Europe: the North Sea (Neterlands and Belgium), the Adriatic Sea (Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) and the Mediterranean Sea (Spain). The completion of this pilot phase will allow the three partners to identify the most efficient practice to adopt in the future expansion of the Inititiave into other much wider areas.

The second phase will identify effective procedures which will discourage the abandomnent of fishing nets at sea and will make available, encourage, and facilitate responsible handling of fishing nets at the end of their life, allowing their recovering and regeneration into new products. The expansion of the Initiative to other areas will be part of this second phase.

During the third phase constructive proposals will be developed concerining implementable actoins.These will be submitted to governments and legislators to ensure that the Healthy Seas Initiative will deliver long-term results and that public awarness will be maximized.