With French company Fil & fab, used fishing lines are transformed into functional high added-value products.
French company Fil & fab’s Nylo is made of recycled fishing nets and lines sourced from ports and harbors in Brittany. The material, first sorted by color to provide a variety of shades, is processed into granules (98% polyamide 6 from the fishing lines combined with 2% mineral additives) that can be injection molded or 3D printed, among other techniques. The additives are necessary to safeguard the polyamide’s intrinsic qualities, says the supplier.
The lines, previously destined for landfill, are estimated to represent some 800 metric tons of waste each year in France. Beyond Brittany, the company aims to expand the initiative to other French coastal areas. It also plans to bring the granulation process, which is currently outsourced, in-house.
Fil & fab has been used for eyeglass frames, surfboard drifts and combined with Carbonium (carbon fiber), a watch band for Ulysses Nardin’s Diver The Ocean Race.
