10 years of unconditional love for the Planet: Happy Birthday Healthy Seas!
March 2013 – A group of five passionate individuals are gathered around a table in Milan, united by a shared vision: to restore the health of our seas by combating the menace of plastic waste. The main goal was to recover nylon nets and regenerate them, together with other nylon waste, into new ECONYL® nylon. These 5 people from diverse backgrounds like two companies and a non-profit organization were the first members of the Healthy Seas Foundation.
“In 2013 I was part of that bunch of people, with an ideal and a world of expectations. I never thought we’d go so far, both in terms of results and geographically. Even overseas.”
Maria Giovanna Sandrini, HS Board Member
The Healthy Seas Initiative – today a Foundation – was established by Aquafil, in collaboration with Star Sock and an NGO, a decade ago to spread awareness on marine litter prevention by working with stakeholders of the fishing sector and organizing cleanups with volunteer divers.
The initiative first started in Europe, focusing on the North, Adriatic, and Mediterranean Seas, important regions for biodiversity and tourism with intensive fishing activity. It wasn’t long before Healthy Seas expanded its geographical scope to more countries in Europe. More partners from the sustainable textile manufacturing sector joined the initiative, and the Foundation grew rapidly.
Today, Healthy Seas operates in 20 countries and 6 regions globally: in Europe, focusing on the North, Adriatic, Baltic, and Mediterranean Seas, in the Atlantic Ocean (Portugal), in the Red Sea and the Pacific Ocean (New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, and South Korea).
“Since 2013 Healthy Seas has grown a lot creating an extraordinary network of partners and individuals, all working together to promote the marine ecosystem. Spreading the voice, all around the world, on the importance of respecting and not depleting our seas and oceans is mandatory and necessary. Healthy Seas is doing a great job on it and it’s reaching amazing results.”
Giulio Bonazzi, CEO of Aquafil
The Healthy Seas Foundation is rooted in circular economy principles. Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it champions the three pillars of sustainability. The foundation strives to make a positive and long-lasting impact on the marine environment, as well as the development of society, through education and raising public awareness about marine litter prevention.
© Robert Steenbergen
The three pillars – Prevention, Education, and Cleanups – synergistically contribute to a virtuous cycle.
Prevention is essential to reduce marine pollution and the dangerous work of divers. Collaborating with fishers, fish farms, local communities and other stakeholders, Healthy Seas prevents waste nets from polluting the seas.
Education plays a pivotal role in raising awareness about the environmental damage caused by ghost fishing gear and promoting the ecological and economic importance of a healthy marine environment.
“Raising awareness is key for positive change.”
Last but not least, Cleanups: the more suggestive but at the same time dangerous activity, the work, hopefully reducible, of various volunteer divers on the bottom of our seas. Waste fishing nets are collected with the involvement of various stakeholders such as divers, salvage companies, fishers, and fish farms. The collected nylon 6 fishing nets become a valuable resource, as Aquafil regenerates them together with fishing nets coming from the aquaculture and other nylon waste into ECONYL® yarn, while the other types of plastics are also reused or recycled in different streams.
Since 2013, Healthy Seas has collected, together with divers and fishermen, over 905,000 kilos of nets and other debris from the seas and oceans. On the educational side, only in 2022 Healthy Seas engaged 3,400 children in education programs during 40 days of education events. Here are the positive impacts the Foundation had in 20 countries around the globe.
Over these years, several films, documentaries, and live streams have illustrated Healthy Seas’ mission, and the Foundation earned the Circular Economy Award during 2019 Milan Fashion Week and the Best Environmental Film Prize at the Cannes World Film Festival for the short documentary “Journey to Ithaca” about the heroic cleanup of 2021.
In ten years, many steps have been taken, but the path to sustainability is still long. From 4 to 6 September Healthy Seas will celebrate its 10th birthday in Croatia and Slovenia with a program full of events and surrounded by friends, partners and supporters who have allowed the foundation to grow over these years. At Aquafil, we can only wish the best to Healthy Seas, maintaining our commitment to support it and help it grow more and more.
Join the foundation. Find out how here.
On the cover: Greek fisherman © Cor Kuyvenhoven, Greece 2019
