ZOGGS TO LAUNCH ECOLAST™ SWIMWEAR MADE FROM OCEAN WASTE

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Zoggs is proud to announce 40% of their SS19 swimwear collection will be made from waste recovered from the ocean, and the plastic in goggle packaging will reduce by 57% with all packaging 100% sustainable by 2020. It’s estimated 12.7 million tonnes of debris is dumped in our oceans every year, and pollution caused by plastic, microbeads and unsustainable fishing nets is harmful to whales, sea turtles, dolphins and other marine life. Fishing nets are the invisible killer taking 600 years to decompose.

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Zoggs’ mission is to transform debris that’s damaging the oceans into high performance swimwear made with ECONYL® yarn. The Ecolast™ swimwear begins its life as plastic waste – abandoned ghost fishing nets, carpet and industrial waste is rescued from the oceans and saved from landfill through different initiatives and projects such as The ECONYL® Reclaiming Program, The Healthy Seas initiative, and Net-Works™. Once the nets are cleaned and shredded, the regeneration process begins: at the ECONYL® depolymerisation plant the prepared waste returns to a raw material and is transformed into Nylon 6 polymers used to produce the ECONYL® yarn. Made from 100% regenerated waste material, the yarn performs as well as any other nylon yarn manufactured using crude oil.

The Ecolast™ fabric is made using 78% ECONYL® yarn and 22% LYCRA® XTRA LIFE™ for a soft, comfortable, high performance swimwear fabric, and has proved to be 15 times more resilient to chlorine than standard swimwear fabrics. The Ecolast™ swimwear will be introduced in AW18 and rolled out from January 2019, with around 40% of the SS19 swimwear made from Ecolast™ and the company will also donate 10% of the Ecolast™ profits to charity.

“I am hugely excited to be supporting Zoggs UK with their launch of Ecolast. For me, the idea of using discarded fishing nets that are cluttering our oceans, recycling them and creating swim suits from the recycled yarn, brings a beautiful cycle and message of ocean conservation to the swim wear market. To work closely with a pioneering brand who are thinking about the wider global issues and matters of importance for our planet and our future generations is exactly why I am proud to work alongside Zoggs UK as their ambassador,” adds Susie Rodgers MBE, Paralympic Gold medallist, multiple European and British record holder.