It might not occur to you that a deep-sea fishing trawler can simply dump their old, worn-out fishnets over the side. After all, no one is watching them out there. And as those nets sink, they can continue to trap ocean life and stay on the ocean floor for centuries, needlessly ensnaring even more fish.

Italian textiles company Aquafil has figured out how to turn this problem into a win for the planet. Led by visionary CEO Giulio Bonazzi, the company spent years figuring out how to completely depolymerise nylon, then repolymerise it. This means they can essentially create new nylon from old, "with no loss of quality" and without the need to suck any new petroleum out of the ground. After perfecting the process, which they call Econyl, they then needed to find a readily-available source of old nylon.

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Aquafil found out about the fishnet problem, and began sending divers to collect them. Another ready source of raw materials for them is discarded carpet, and the company set up a "reverse supply chain" to gather and harvest it. In this manner, they are literally able to use what would otherwise be garbage as a viable raw material. There's no word on how their equipment is currently powered, but if it is or will be a sustainable source of energy, and if the system is scalable, nylon manufacturers could vastly cut their requirements for crude oil by scouring the plant of nylon garbage.

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Take a look at the Econyl process below. What I found most interesting was Bonazzi recounting that had they known how difficult the process would be—others told him he was "crazy"—they might never have embarked on the project. But luckily for the planet, they did:

For designers and architects who want to learn more about the material and how to spec it, they've got information here.