Hyosung, an end-to-end textile maker, expanded its Ocean Protection Initiative with a broader assortment of regen ocean yarns made from discarded fishing nets.

Hyosung began its ocean protection initiative in 2007 by collecting and recycling discarded fishing nets found in the world’s oceans and invested in its proprietary recycling process to increase production of its regen ocean nylon program which produces GRS-certified post-consumer yarns made from the nets.

Hyosung’s GRS-certified regen ocean nylon program includes regen ocean robic and regen ocean nylon. Osprey collaborated with Hyosung and launched backpacks made with the company’s regen ocean robic high-tenacity nylon as part of the brands SS24 Talon Earth collection.

“As a complete sustainable textile solutions provider, we are proud of our ability to continually innovate and offer materials that support our customers’ sustainability needs,” said Simon Whitmarsh-Knight, Hyosung’s global marketing director for textiles. “We are excited to see a number of these innovative products made with our new regen ocean fibers that will be launched early next year.”

Hyosung recently completed an independent third-party Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comparing the manufacturing process of 1kg of regen ocean post-consumer recycled nylon made with discarded fishing nets with the manufacture of 1kg of conventional nylon. The results concluded that the manufacture of regen ocean “reduces CO2 emissions by 73 percent, fossil resource use by 75.7 percent and water consumption by 98.6 percent.

Hyosung will present its latest fabric initiatives and a broad assortment of fabrics and concept garments developed by its Fashion Design Center (FDC) at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, June 19-21, in Salt Lake City, Booth #300997-SO.