Marine trash can be made into clothing fibers

In addition to cotton, wool, leather, acrylic, etc., what are the raw materials for clothing? The answer is plastic waste. A clothing company based in Madrid, Spain, recycles plastic bottles floating in the ocean, discarded fishing nets, old used tires, and even used coffee powder to produce jackets, vests, backpacks and other "new generations". Clothing is very popular in the market.

In Villajoyosa, in eastern Spain, a traditional fishing boat squats in the azure Mediterranean, capturing cuttlefish, shrimp and sea fish. But since July last year, they have been salvaging discarded plastic bottles in the sea. Over 200 ships in the entire Valencia region have signed a contract with the clothing company that produces “new generation” clothing to salvage marine debris.

The clothing company, which was founded in 2010, currently has 18 employees who named the brand of clothing and accessories made from waste products such as plastic bottles as “new generation”. The idea of ​​this clothing company is to create a truly sustainable fashion brand. The reason for proposing this concept is that the excessive use of natural resources and the large amount of industrial waste are too environmentally unfriendly. They made the fish that the fishermen salvaged from the ocean into high-end fashion through technical means. “What others see is waste, and what I see is raw materials,” said Javier Goyenet, president of the 45-year-old company. According to him, the recycled waste plastic will be crushed, flattened and boiled, and then automatically sorted by the machine to become the fiber raw material for making garments. “We want to be the first company to make use of submarine waste to make fashion.” Goyenet said that although the plastic waste on the ocean and on land may become the fiber raw material for making clothing, their current raw materials are mainly marine waste.

In just a few months, the fishing boat has salvaged two tons of waste plastic and two tons of other waste. Qiao Si Ignacio, president of the Federation of Fishermen of the Valencia Region, said that the fishermen did not receive any compensation from them. "In the eyes of ecologists, we are destroyers, but at least in the removal of marine debris, we are doing the right thing." Ignacio is very supportive of the clothing company's approach. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were fishermen. The old fisherman who had worked hard for 19 years at sea said that now every time he goes out to sea, he habitually fills the container of the clothing company dedicated to recycling garbage.

“In the past, fishermen always said when they closed the net, this is not what I want, then left the fish and threw the garbage back into the water, but today we don’t even throw a piece of paper into the sea.” Ignacio Say. Now, he and other fishermen will remove the fish, shrimp and crab from the black silt. Recently, I have only found a small amount of garbage in the net. "This is because we have already cleared a lot from the sea," he said.

According to an international report released in February 2015, 192 coastal countries worldwide have an amazing 8 million tons of plastic waste discharged into the ocean each year. Garbage includes all imaginable plastic products, such as shopping bags, bottles, toys, food packaging, fishing gear, sunglasses... some garbage is eaten by marine life. Plastic waste has been found in the belly of Mediterranean fish and birds. "Sea turtles suffer the most, and they may die of intestinal obstruction after swallowing plastic bags," said singer Shima Gill, a veterinarian at the Animal Protection Center in Valencia.

The technology of making garments from waste is expected to solve the growing problem of garbage in Spain. “Approximately 4 million tons of plastic bottles are discarded every year.” Gabriel Budu, commercial director of PET, Spain’s largest recycling company, said plastic waste has become a social problem.

The clothing company's annual output value in 2015 reached 4.8 million US dollars (about 30.72 million yuan). Not long ago, the "new generation" series of costumes successfully entered the UK's high-end department store Harold and the Bloomingdale department store in New York, USA. The company has also established cooperative alliances in 11 countries and regions including Spain, South Korea, Portugal, Mexico, Japan, etc. to jointly develop and manufacture recycled materials.