For Prada’s sustainable re-nylon project, “What We Carry”, National Geographic explorer and photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales and Chinese actor and Prada reporter Wei Daxun visited a clothing factory called Parawin in Ganzhou City, China. It is the first factory to collaborate with Aquafil, an Econyl textile yarn producer.
Discarded nylon end up in landfills where they release harmful greenhouse gases like methane. Through the collaboration between Parawin and Aquafil, these nylon scraps instead of going to landfills will be transported to Aquafil and will be transformed into Econyl, after which they will be repurposed as Prada’s re-nylon.
Prada’s Re-nylon initiative in collaboration with Aquafil produces Econyl nylon, obtained through the recycling and purification process of plastic waste collected from oceans, fishing nets, and textile fibre waste. Also, a percentage of revenue from the sale of this Re-Nylon collection is donated to UNESCO to develop international educational programmes about sustainability.
According to Mochang Gong, a pattern cutter at Parawin, their new machines have been able to make good use of wasted fabrics, however a lot of textile wastes still remains. This collaboration can encourage more fashion companies to follow business practices that are more eco-friendly and sustainable.
