Endless possibilities with ECONYL

Did you know: Several of our carpet products are made using ECONYL 100% regenerated yarn?

ECONYL yarn is made from waste fishing nets from the sea, fabric scraps from mills, and carpets destined for landfill. And it can be recycled and regenerated infinitely. Because of this, many of the carpets in our collection carry phenomenal environmental specs.

Fabric scraps collected by ECONYL and recycled into nylon.

How ECONYL yarn is made

The ECONYL Regeneration System is a four-step process that turns ocean and landfill waste into new carpet.

1. It starts with rescuing waste that’s in the ocean or destined for landfill. This is then sorted and cleaned.

2. The nylon waste is brought back to its original purity through a radical regeneration and purification process. This means that ECONYL nylon is exactly the same as virgin nylon.

3. The nylon is processed into carpet and textile yarn.

4. Designers use this new nylon to create new products, such as swimwear, sunglasses or carpet. As this new yarn is the same as virgin nylon, these products have the potential to be recycled infinitely without the nylon losing quality.

This means you create and buy new products without ever having to use new resources.

ECONYL regenerated nylon looks and performs like virgin nylon

Regenerated yarn and sustainability

There are many reasons why carpets made from ECONYL yarn can be part of green building practices. For one, it’s gentler on the environment, reducing the global warming impact of nylon by up to 80% compared with making the material from oil.

What’s more, it gets rid of waste that would otherwise remain in the ecosystem for decades, like ghost nets that have been left or lost by fishermen. These serve as deadly traps to fishes, turtles and other marine animals. Divers recover these nets so that ECONYL can transform them into regenerated nylon.

This also includes old carpet. Previously, ECONYL was only able to recover a small fraction of old carpets. Then, in 2018, they opened their very first carpet recycling facility, Aquafil Carpet Recycling #1, in Arizona. Now, all of the components are recovered and put back into production.

At the recycling centre, carpets are shredded. Then, using water and friction, they’re divided into their three main ingredients: “nylon 6, that goes into our ECONYL® Regeneration System in Slovenia, polypropylene that goes into injection molding, and calcium carbonate, used to stabilize the carpet, that goes into the road construction and concrete.” (Source: ECONYL)