Prada Re-Nylon #5 - Slovenia
The story behind the new Prada Re-Nylon sustainability initiative has been charted across the globe - uncovering the methods by which harmful and wasteful materials - plastic ocean waste, fishing nets, discarded textiles - are regenerated, revitalised. These raw materials are harnessed to produce eternally recyclable ECONYL®, the fiber by textile yarn producer Aquafil, which Prada used to create the Prada Re-Nylon collection, also the foundation of a new, entirely sustainable approach to fashion.
Uncovering the complex and intriguing stories and examining the multiple countries and communities touched by the Re-Nylon project, Prada have collaborated with specialists from National Geographic to create an episodic branded content series exploring its roots - What We Carry.
In the final step of this journey through the Re-Nylon project, we are guided by Prada reporter Amanda Gorman, the inaugural US Youth Poet Laureate whose work celebrates community and social change, and the engineer and architect Arthur Huang, a trailblazer and National Geographic Explorer who focuses on the idea of upcycling waste into new forms.
They travelled to Slovenia, a country which has latterly become a hub of a new regenerative and sustainable industry, with 40,000 tons of material recycled annually. It is also home of Aquafil’s production plant for ECONYL®, established in the city of Ljubljana.
Alongside Giulio Bonazzi, Chairman and CEO of Aquafil, we are allowed to see some of the intricate chemical recycling process of depolymerisation, used to transforming tons of collected waste into pristine, pioneering new ECONYL® yarn.
Transparency is vital: What We Carry travels across the world to map the entire supply chain of Prada Re-Nylon - demonstrating the origin of every thread, the history behind each piece. Through five individual episodes, lead by Prada reporters and National Geographic experts, What We Carry shows exactly that - the ability each of us carry, within our choices, to consider their long-term impact; and that what we carry can affect genuine change.
Recyclable, renewable, responsible. Re-Nylon.
More About
Prada Re-Nylon
Prada Re-Nylon reinvents the idea of timeless, as something that can truly last forever.
Re-Nylon is a bold move towards total sustainability - towards an ultimate goal of converting all Prada virgin nylon into regenerated nylon ECONYL® by the end of 2021. It reflects the focus of the Prada Group on promoting a corporate culture that aspires to increasingly sustainable balances, incorporating into its daily work the idea of a return of value to society.
The product of a partnership between Prada and the textile yarn producer Aquafil, ECONYL® nylon is obtained through the recycling and purification process of plastic waste collected from oceans, fishing nets, and textile fibre waste. ECONYL® yarn, through a process of depolymerization and re-polymerisation, can be recycled indefinitely, with no loss of quality.
Underscoring the importance of awareness and responsibility, a percentage of proceeds from the sale of the Prada Re-Nylon capsule will be donated to a project related to environmental sustainability. Prada in partnership with UNESCO is developing educational activities that involve students from several countries to implement dedicated lesson plans using plastic and circular economy topics to inspire learners. The approach of the educational program is built around two axes - learning and take action – and one of the outcomes will be an awareness raising campaign designed by the students.
Content Partner
National Geographic