ECONYL® nylon
Nylon waste – such as fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring and industrial plastic – is recovered and converted into new yarn, which has the same qualitative characteristics as traditional nylon.
Life Cycle Assessment
Aquafil was among the first companies in Italy to adopt a “Life Cycle Thinking” approach, a framework that considers a holistic view of a product and evaluates its environmental impact from cradle to grave (or from cradle to cradle).
In the Life Cycle assessment of the nylon value chain, we discovered that the highest negative impact on our planet came from the raw material extraction phase – so this is where we concentrated most of our efforts.
Years and years of research finally led to the development of the ECONYL® Regeneration System: a highly innovative industrial process that allows replacing caprolactam (the main component to produce Nylon 6, derived from oil) with alternative raw materials coming from the recycling of various types of nylon waste.
ECONYL® Qualified
At the end of 2015, to raise the bar higher in the ECONYL® value chain, we introduced the ECONYL® Qualified program, a superior qualification protocol with stricter requirements on suppliers’ enviromental impact.
The project was born from the desire to continuously improve the environmental performance of our ECONYL® yarn by acting on phases of the production process that we do not directly control (e.g. transport services, raw material acquisition, packaging and product finishing services).
All suppliers complying with the requirements defined in the protocol – primarily concerning materials, energy resources and production management – obtain an ECONYL® Qualified certification.
Specifically, we have committed to:
• Investing in renewable energy, in order to preserve exhaustible resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions;
• Reducing the impact and increasing the efficiency of our production processes.
Chemicals management
We are compliant with the European Union regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). In the textile sector, the careful management of chemical substances is fundamental to protect human health and the environment.
