Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, there's a fishing net that's been sitting there since before your kid was born. It's not catching fish. It's not doing anything useful. It's just slowly tangling up marine life, breaking into microplastics, and generally being the worst kind of houseguest.
Now imagine someone fished that net out, broke it down to its molecular bones, and turned it into your kid's rashie.
That's ECONYL. And it's not a marketing gimmick — it's one of the most interesting things happening in fabric right now.
So What Actually Is ECONYL?
ECONYL is a regenerated nylon 6 fibre made by Italian manufacturer Aquafil from recovered ocean waste including fishing nets, fabric scraps, and industrial plastic. It is chemically identical to virgin nylon — same strength, stretch, and chlorine resistance — but diverts waste from landfill and oceans while using fewer new resources.
ECONYL is a regenerated nylon fibre made by Italian company Aquafil. "Regenerated" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, so let's unpack it.
They collect waste nylon from all over the world — abandoned fishing nets from the ocean, old carpet destined for landfill, fabric scraps from factories. Then they break it all the way back down to its original molecular form (caprolactam, if you want to impress someone at a barbecue) and rebuild it into brand-new nylon yarn.
The result is a fibre that's chemically identical to virgin nylon. Not "almost as good." Identical. Same strength, same stretch, same durability. The only difference is where it came from — and that difference is enormous.
How Is ECONYL Made? (The Short Version)
ECONYL is made in four steps: waste nylon is collected from oceans and landfills, sorted and cleaned, broken down through depolymerisation into its chemical building blocks (caprolactam), then repolymerised into brand-new nylon 6 yarn. This process can be repeated infinitely — the material never degrades in quality.
The process has four main steps, and the science is pretty wild:
1. Rescue the waste. Fishing nets are recovered from oceans and fish farms. Carpet fluff is diverted from landfill. Fabric offcuts are collected from factories. All nylon waste that would otherwise decompose for centuries. 2. Sort and clean. The collected waste is sorted and cleaned. Ocean-recovered nets need a lot more scrubbing than factory offcuts, for obvious reasons. 3. Depolymerisation. This is the clever bit. The waste nylon is chemically broken down to its base monomer — caprolactam. This rewinds the clock on the material, returning it to the same building block used to make nylon from scratch. 4. Regeneration. That caprolactam is polymerised back into nylon 6 yarn. Fresh. Clean. Ready to be woven into fabric. And the yarn can go through this entire cycle again at end of life — ECONYL is infinitely recyclable.How Does ECONYL Perform vs Virgin Nylon?
ECONYL performs identically to virgin nylon in every measurable way. It has the same tensile strength, UV resistance, chlorine resistance, stretch recovery, and colourfastness. Independent testing confirms no difference in durability or performance. The only difference is the source material — waste instead of new petroleum.
Here's the part that matters when your kid is doing belly flops into a chlorinated pool for the fourteenth consecutive time: does it hold up?
Yes. Emphatically yes. Because ECONYL is broken down to its molecular level and rebuilt, the resulting fibre is identical to nylon made from petroleum. No trade-off. No sacrificing durability for a feel-good story.
- Stretch and recovery — Same four-way stretch as virgin nylon. It moves with your kid and bounces back without bagging out.
- Chlorine resistance — Holds up to pool chemicals just as well. Your kid's rashie won't go saggy and faded after a season of swimming lessons.
- UV stability — Takes to UPF-rated treatments perfectly. All AVALY ECONYL pieces are rated UPF 50+, blocking 98% of UV radiation.
- Colour retention — Prints stay vibrant. Solids stay solid. The Pink Hibiscus looks just as good in March as it did in November.
- Quick-dry — Same moisture-wicking properties as conventional nylon, because it is the same nylon, just with a better backstory.
Why ECONYL Makes Particular Sense for Swimwear
Not every sustainable fabric works for swimwear. Organic cotton dissolves into a soggy mess in the surf. Hemp is about as stretchy as a brick. Recycled polyester doesn't handle chlorine as gracefully.
Nylon was basically born for swimwear. It's lightweight, quick-drying, chlorine-resistant, and stretchy enough to survive the gymnastics between a change room and the pool. When you can get all of that from a regenerated source instead of drilling new petroleum, it's a no-brainer.
That's why AVALY uses ECONYL for our rashies, swimwear pieces, and board shorts — same premium performance, without the environmental cost of starting from scratch every time.
The Environmental Impact (In Actual Numbers)
For every 10,000 tonnes of ECONYL raw material, the process saves 70,000 barrels of crude oil, reduces CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent compared to virgin nylon production, and diverts waste from oceans and landfill. Each tonne of fishing nets recovered prevents decades of ghost fishing that kills marine life.
Sustainability claims can feel vague, so here are some concrete figures:
- For every 10,000 tonnes of ECONYL produced, 70,000 barrels of crude oil are saved — oil that stays in the ground instead of becoming virgin nylon.
- Global warming impact is reduced by up to 90% compared to petroleum-based nylon production.
- Waste that would take 30-40 years (fishing nets) to 600 years (industrial nylon) to decompose gets diverted from landfill and the ocean.
- The process is infinitely repeatable — same molecules, recovered and regenerated, no loss in quality.
ECONYL doesn't mean accepting a lesser product. It means getting the same product from a fundamentally smarter source.
The Bigger Picture
ECONYL represents a working model for circular manufacturing — taking existing waste and turning it into high-performance material without quality loss. It does not solve ocean pollution alone, but it proves that brands can make products from waste rather than new resources, at commercial scale, without compromising performance.
ECONYL isn't going to single-handedly fix ocean pollution. But it represents something genuinely useful: a closed-loop system where waste becomes raw material, becomes product, becomes raw material again.
When AVALY chose ECONYL for our swimwear range — alongside Yulex plant-based rubber for our wetsuits — it wasn't about putting a sustainability badge on the website. It was about finding materials that perform at the level Australian kids demand (they're going to thrash it) while doing measurably less damage to the places those kids swim.
Your kid doesn't care what their rashie is made of. They care that it fits, it's comfortable, and it looks good enough to actually wear. ECONYL delivers all of that. The fact that it used to be a fishing net at the bottom of the Mediterranean is just a very good bonus.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ECONYL fabric made from?
ECONYL is regenerated nylon made from waste materials — abandoned fishing nets from the ocean, old carpet fibres, fabric scraps from manufacturing, and other industrial nylon waste. These materials are chemically broken down to their base molecules and rebuilt into brand-new nylon yarn that's identical to virgin nylon.
Is ECONYL the same as recycled polyester?
No. ECONYL is regenerated nylon (nylon 6), a different polymer from polyester. The key distinction is that ECONYL is broken down to its molecular level and completely regenerated, so the resulting fibre is identical to virgin nylon. Recycled polyester is typically mechanically recycled, which can degrade the fibre over multiple cycles. ECONYL can be regenerated infinitely.
Does ECONYL swimwear last as long as regular swimwear?
Yes. Because ECONYL is chemically identical to virgin nylon, it offers the same durability, chlorine resistance, and stretch recovery. With normal care — rinsing after use and drying in the shade — ECONYL swimwear lasts just as long as any quality nylon swimwear.
Is ECONYL fabric safe for kids with sensitive skin?
Absolutely. ECONYL is the same nylon polymer used in conventional swimwear, just sourced from regenerated waste rather than new petroleum. The regeneration process produces a pure, clean fibre with no residual contaminants from the source waste materials.
Can ECONYL products be recycled again at end of life?
In principle, yes — ECONYL is infinitely recyclable because the regeneration process returns the nylon to its base molecules each time. In practice, consumer take-back programs for swimwear are still limited, but the technology exists for a closed loop. Passing down outgrown swimwear to other families is also a great way to extend its life before recycling.