Old, frayed and torn fishing nets are discarded partly because of a lack of end-of-life solutions. Bureo®, a company based in California, is trying to fix this and to provide a responsible alternative to virgin plastics by working directly with fishing communities in South America.

Nylon is one of the strongest plastics we use in our products. When we need a super-lightweight fabric, nylon is vital for its strength. But nylon is a petroleum-based material, and producing it has a high cost in energy and greenhouse gases. Incorporating as much recycled nylon as we can lessens our dependence on virgin petroleum as a raw material source, helps eliminate discarded material and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing.

Farmers who grow their cotton without harmful chemicals reduce their reliance on big agrochemical companies and reduce their workers’ exposure to potentially toxic and carcinogenic compounds. Organically farmed cotton employs nature-based solutions to manage pests and to build healthy soil, instead of the synthetic pesticides, herbicides, defoliants, fertilizers and GMO seeds used to grow conventional cotton.