From bathing suits and activewear to the material found on the interiors and seats of cars, nylon is a ubiquitous fabric. It’s resilient and water-resistant, which makes it the perfect choice for a variety of fashion and other consumer applications. But there’s a catch. Conventional nylon comes with several environmental hangups, ranging from its origins in petroleum to the risks it poses at the end of its life as waste. But recently the world of nylon has seen some serious innovation: sustainable nylon made from recycled nylon waste. It’s a one-to-one substitution for conventional nylon.
Two weeks ago I sat down with Giulio Bonazzi, founder of Aquafil-a company leading the movement in sustainable nylon. From our conversation and a few other research deep dives, I learned about the impact of conventional nylon, the ins and outs of recycled nylon, and the (possible) future of nylon.
What is conventional nylon?
Producing conventional nylon is an environmentally precarious process. For starters, it’s a synthetic derived from petroleum, which has its own environmental setbacks. Petroleum is a nonrenewable resource and drilling for petroleum can cause harm to the ecosystems around the drill site. And the risk that oil spills in particular pose to the environment are grave.
Unfortunately, nylon’s problems don’t end there. Once the petroleum has been drilled it has to be transported and refined–two processes that involve large outputs of both energy and carbon emissions. And according to a 2012 life cycle analysis, nylon itself requires a great deal of energy and water, releases large amounts of carbon, and is more harmful to humans and the environment than infamous materials like cotton and polyester.
The environmental challenges involved in producing nylon and garments or other products from nylon are great. But there’s a reason it’s so widely used; it gets the job done. It’s strong, durable, water-resistant, and lightweight. Its properties make it the perfect fit for certain jobs.
With nylon, it’s not as easy as substituting another fabric, as they don’t all carry the same properties. So whereas various natural fibers can be substituted for one another with a great deal of success- as is the case with fruit and plant-based leathers– nylon hasn’t quite met its match.
But if nylon can’t be replaced, does it have to be this way? Fortunately, there are alternative nylons on the market that aim to offer the same qualities as conventional nylon without the environmental impact. Some companies, for example, have started creating bio-based nylon. But what about a nylon option that contends with nylon waste and offers a direct substitution for conventional nylon–something that beats nylon with nylon?
What is recycled nylon?
One of the leading players in the movement toward sustainable nylon is Aquafil, an Italian manufacturer. If you’ve worn a Speedo bathing suit, a Prada bag made with nylon, or even a jacket from Outerknown, chances are you’ve worn Aquafil’s innovative nylon ECONYL. Aquafil’s goal is to not only offer a one-to-one substitution for conventional nylon, but to also create a product that’s better; better for the environment, better for businesses, and better for consumers.
Aquafil isn’t the only manufacturer making sustainable nylon, but they serve as an interesting case study to help us answer the question, “can nylon be sustainable?” And that’s why I sat down with Giulio Bonazzi, founder of Aquafil, to learn everything I could about sustainable nylon.
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Earlier, I hinted about the idea of creating nylon that contends with nylon waste; this is exactly what Aquafil does to manufacture their ECONYL. They take waste- mostly post consumer waste like fishing nets, carpets, and plastic scraps- and break it down into its most basic building blocks, individual molecules known as monomers. After a purification process, they can start to combine these molecules once more into the nylon polymer.
Using post-consumer waste allows Aquafil to eliminate oil from their process. Without oil drilling and transportation, they can significantly cut out carbon and energy emissions that conventional nylon manufacturers rely on. According to Bonazzi, this makes ECONYL 90% less emitting than conventional nylon.
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But merely taking waste and turning it into a new product isn’t the key to a more sustainable product. As Bonazzi explained, ”Of course recycling is necessary, but is not sufficient, to guarantee that what we are doing is creating a net positive effect in the environment. It’s important the way that you do it.” In other words, manufacturers must pay attention to the process and the materials in equal measure.
For any manufacturer of any fiber, it’s important to partner with the right organizations to ensure a positive environmental effect. For Aquafil, they work with the Global Recycling Standard and maintain a Cradle to Cradle certification. They also monitor their environmental impact through the Life Cycle Analysis software GaBi. (Other manufacturers may rely on other certification bodies; what matters the most is that they’re being monitored and using best environmental practices.)
What does recycled nylon bring to the table?
After the creation of their nylon and the close monitoring of their process, the end product is, put simply, just another nylon. Or in Bonazzi’s words, “ECONYL is a nylon; it’s nothing more or less than a conventional nylon,” meaning it has all of the same properties and is chemically the same as conventional nylon, it’s just made from nylon waste instead of oil. It’s exactly the same, just better.
In carefully creating nylon from recycled waste, it’s relatively easy to be carbon neutral. According to Bonazzi, some companies that use recycled nylon go even further to create a carbon negative product; meaning they actively take carbon out of the air. This is of course an outlier, but an interesting goal post to keep in mind nonetheless.
Ultimately, when you pair the possible positive environmental effects of recycled nylon with the qualities it inherently possesses, you arrive at an attractive option. As Bonazzi said to me, “I believe that nylon is an incredible material because of having a superior mechanical performances than, for example, polyester or polypropylene, and you need less in order to make a product, and normally it lasts longer and it’s easier also to repair in case you need to fix it for any kind of failure.” In other words, a nylon that avoids environmental harm is a strong competitor not only amongst conventional nylon but amongst other polymers like polyester and polyethylene, all of which share several environmental drawbacks (as mentioned above).
The future of nylon
After learning more about the capabilities of recycled nylon, I was floored. I hadn’t quite put it together on my own that it was identical to conventional nylon. When you write about sustainable materials often, you start to grow accustomed to big trade-offs, whether that comes in the form of performance capability or aesthetic differences. But that’s just not the case here.
But even with all of the benefits of sustainable nylon, recycled nylon is not very common. Bonazzi believes Aquafil is rather unique in its approach; many brands that create recycled nylon use their own pre-consumer waste but Aquafil removes existing waste from the outside world. But still, even with the 500+ apparel brands Aquafil supplies with nylon and the other recycled nylon out there, there are immeasurable brands that still use conventional nylon.
The state of nylon now makes me wonder what exactly nylon can or will become in the future. Bonazzi states that “the future of nylon… relies upon the understanding of the performance capabilities of the material and very much dependent regulation of the materials.” Nylon could potentially become an even more attractive option from an economic standpoint once people truly understand what it can do. And nylon will become an even more attractive option if there is regulation to make sure that it’s produced in an environmentally sound way.
As he explained to me, there has been some movement in terms of regulation of materials. More extended producer responsibility systems are cropping up, which puts the onus to grapple with waste prevention and lowering environmental impact factors (and their associated costs) on companies. When this type of regulation becomes more widespread, properties like recyclability could make or break a particular material. And while nylon is recyclable, not all polymers and fibers share that quality. This could spell good news for nylon, but even Bonazzi admits that we’re just at the beginning of that process.
It’s difficult to know when or if future changes will target nylon or other polymers or fabric production more broadly. The world of fabric and garment production has been a Wild West for years, with a serious lack of regulation of environmental and ethical issues. Without strict government regulation, many companies have taken it upon themselves to do “the right thing” with guidance from independent certification bodies. These companies have proven that it’s possible to operate an ethical and sustainable business and be successful. Perhaps recycled nylon proves that it’s possible to create a sustainable material that’s not only successful, but superior to its conventional counterpart.