Like every year, the World Oceans Day, established by the UN in 1992 at the Rio de Janeiro environmental summit, is coming this year too. Next June 8th, the world will celebrate the priceless value of our immense reserves of water increasingly threatened on several fronts, primarily from the myriad of plastic waste that is turning them into floating landfills. And this is perhaps the most important message that must pass on June 8th, an urgent message of better care and protection of a unique heritage that belongs to all of us.
Even the fashion world is inevitably called to account for this serious form of pollution, just think of the tons of waste water and other harmful substances from the textile industry that contaminate rivers, lakes, seas, as well as skies and underground. And then, of course, also all the synthetic materials composing a large part of our clothing, non-recyclable and non-biodegradable materials that end up every year in landfills. I find it right, then, that the actors of this big industry, the second most polluting in the world after the oil, I will never tire of reminding it, act to find sustainable solutions, thus reducing the heavy impact they have on the planet.
This is the case of the Italian company Carvico SpA, leader along with Jersey Lomellina SpA, in the production of technical fabrics for beachwear, sportswear and outerwear. Always committed to a company policy attentive to the environmental impact of each production phase, Carvico will take part in the World Oceans Day with an initiative-reportage from the depths of the Santorini’s island to understand what really means ‘pollution’. During the event, which will live stream and which also be eco-à-porter will follow, the Healthy Seas association, which Carvico has been supporting since 2016 and which recovers abandoned fishing nets from the depths, together with Ghost Fishing and the Cousteau Divers, will recover precisely these huge tools that fishermen abandon or lose in the open sea and that become lethal traps for marine flora and fauna. But not only; fishing nets, once made of hemp and cotton, are now produced with nylon, polypropylene and polyester, so imagine what heavy pollutant footprint leave on the sea!
The most interesting and particular thing about this project is that the recovered fishing nets will be sent to a plant in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where they will undergo a regeneration process in which the nylon will be transformed in a new material, 100% sustainable , the ECONYL® yarn that Carvico will then use and already uses for its technical fabrics. A great example of circular economy, is not it?
Carvico and Jersey Lomellina hold the world exclusive of ECONYL® for swimwear since 2013 and there are many brands, both in Italy and abroad, that for years have been using these eco-fabrics for their collections; among them there is also Anekdot, the sustainable German brand of lingerie and beachwear the blog already talked about.
In the next posts, I will have the chance to talk about some brands that use Carvico fabrics, summer is long. What concerns me today is to remind that on June 8th we are all called to remind us of the commitment we have towards our infinite ‘blue’ and that this commitment must just not be one day a year but always. Because we like going on holiday, as we like diving and swimming, summer is beautiful, is not?, but then a little more respect for this great ‘mother ‘who gave us life.