Ecoalf, Javier Goyeneche's company that manufactures clothes from ocean trash

Since 2015 Ecoalf leads an international movement to clean the seas.In collaboration with fishermen, he has extracted 205 tons of plastic from the Mediterranean that turns into a fabric for his garments.We embark with its founder, Javier Goyeneche, to the "fishing" of raw material in Alicante.

I'm still shocked. What I lived a few days ago on a journey along the Alicante coast will be recorded forever in my retina. Fish and plastics. The garbage with food. The animal kingdom living with the product of the unconsciousness of the human being. Nasty. For not putting another qualifier. A lesson that leaves your heart shrubed. Some images that speak for themselves. Reality surpasses fiction. Because thanks to Ecoalf, the Spanish sustainable fashion company and the first in our country to be B Corp (the highest recognition that is given by the commitment to people and the planet), out of series has witnessed the reason why It hides at the bottom of the seas. Hopefully, like me, these images made by my partner Luis de las Salas, remain in the retina of those who read this report today. Perhaps, thus, among all, let's try to change many habits that instead destroy the planet, help save it as much as possible. "Because there is no planet B". As the brand's motto says.

The shipment was in the port of Villajoyosa. Together with us Javier Goyeneche (Madrid, 29-5-70), founder and president of Ecoalf, part of his great team and the fishermen of the drag ship in which we went to know, live and direct, UPCyCling the Oceans ( Uto), the project created by the firm in 2015 to collect the garbage that destroys oceans and turn it into a top quality thread to make fabrics and products. An unprecedented adventure worldwide that Goyeneche opted through his foundation, and in which he embarked to help clean the seas thanks to the support of fishermen. To those who will be eternally grateful. Because without them nothing would be possible. They also do not charge a euro for separating trash from fish. From then until now they have more than 250 tons collected. How it sounds. Creepy. But, every year, around 8 million tons of plastic fall to the sea, which is equivalent to 15 tons every minute of each day. It is scary until writing it. "When I created the brand in 2009, I had the very clear idea that it had to be really sustainable. I thought that recycling was an option, as long as I was able to create a collection of recycled products with the same quality and design as the unintestish -Goyeneche explains, which immediately transmits the enthusiasm for what he does.

All over the world

The beginnings were not easy.At that time in the market there were no recycled fabrics they wanted and Javier, he had to travel through the world to develop them.But the effort and constancy paid off and little by little, he got the firm to be what today is: a reference that leads this movement, creating the first generation of recycled products of identical quality and design that the best not recycled."I started in Taichung with an incredible lady who recycled plastics to make polyester carpets. Then I discovered a group of people who recycled networks in Korea. I left, we started investing to convert that nylon 6.0, the best quality in the world. So thatYou get an idea of oil to that nylon are 17 chemical steps; from a fishing network to this nylon seven. That is why savings in water, emissions and energy. All our plummifers are made with those fishermen networks. "

The next destination was Taiwan, where they reached an agreement with a company to recycle the remains of coffee from coffee shops. "We collect the wet poses that remain in the morning, we turn them into dust and mix with plastic bottles polymers." And then they started a project in Spain, where they recycle tires with signus, with which they do all their flip-flop. The problem? That Ecoalf never moves the garbage of its place of origin, and that is where it collects it where it manufactures the garments. A complication. It is not the same to travel from Korea to La Rioja than to have everything concentrated. But if there is something clear is that they will never run out of recycling material. Trash are kicking. Both on land and in sea. "One day while talking to a fisherman of what he was doing, he asked me do something with the sea because nobody worried. When I proposed it in the advice I remember that we had a great internal discussion. They told me, but Javier if you have a lot of garbage on the ground, why complicate you. And I insisted: the sea is forgotten " .

More plastic than fish

He did not give up. He read, studied and discovered that almost 75 percent of the garbage falling into the water, is at the bottom of the seas. She had it very clear. He was not going to keep his arms crossed. He created UPCyCling the Oceans. Something for which we should be eternally grateful. To the project and this man, who without hurry but without pause, is doing so much for our environment. The same that tells me that in 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. Because plastic takes 450 years to disappear and everything accumulates. The same that thanks to the illusion of him and his project is already a reference in the world. Even if he doesn't say it. The one that tells me, alarmed, 200,000 million plastic bottles are left without picking up a year? Creepy. And that he never talks about him. He talks about us. Like when he points. "We have recycled more than 120,000 million plastic bottles and with 80 of them we develop a meter of recycled tissue (polyester). It is a pass. And with 235 grams of fishing networks, 1 meter of recycled tissue, nylon of maximum quality".

But none of this would have been possible without Nacho Llorca, breed fisherman and president of the Association of the Fishermen's Brotherhood of Alicante."When I discovered that in this area of Levante there was a fleet of 90 drags I called and put me with Nacho. I told him the project and immediately told me that."In addition, these fishermen, fed up with their bad reputation and the effort of the environmentalists in which they hurt at the bottom of the sea, saw an option to demonstrate their good work when they went out to fish.They only track in sand, never in places with protected species, and are also motorized (radar).They can only throw the nets into marked areas."I would like to fish the environmentalists with them, from 4 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon and see what they do. In addition to the hard work, they check where the networks throw," says Javier.

Nacho joins the conversation."I accepted above all because I didn't even understand what we did to take the garbage and throw it back into the sea. But it is what we were always doing and we were not aware. When I went out to the sea with my father and asked him, he told me thatHe will throw his grandfather, "says this man who knows what it is to fish from his earliest childhood."The summer days better but in winter it is sometimes insufferable," Nacho continues.They had to do. And that some fishermen already did it on their own initiative. But they did not know what to do with the garbage recovered from the sea. "

Until the Ecoalf Foundation began to fill the ports with containers and now, as we verified at the end of the task, long rows of fisheries charged with garbage arrive.And the fish, and the waters, cleaner.For the good of all."Nacho was key in the process. I told it clearly: I have this idea but I don't even know what is going to come out, or if I am going to be able to make thread with that garbage, because the quality of the thread depends on the quality ofThis garbage is worse, worse, the polymer, and of course, I this bottle is recycled within 20 days. It is quite clean but you will see what comes out of the sea, maybe it has been there for 8 years, it is shattered and the level ofContamination of each particle of what we get from the sea is four times greater than that of the Earth. We started with three small containers and put it in three ships of three friends. "

Goyeneche had no waste management license and then he couldn't collect that garbage.He started working with managers who picked up and grouped him.And he did not spare a second of his time to give talks in other ports throughout the coast.He waited for the fishermen and when they returned he had a beer with them to explain and convince them.In a short time there were so many who said yes, that the investors could not continue supporting the project.He went to New York and was lucky that a philanthropist, Henry Pincus trusted him and placed all the containers of the ports.Once the project was launched he retired.He associated with Ecoembes and has gone from collaborating with 11 ports of Levante to almost 40 ports throughout Spain.

Today Javier Goyeneche is required worldwide to give lectures on sustainability, innovation or the so -called "Blue Economy" worldwide."In Istanbul, giving a conference a person from the Thai government contacted me, who asked me if it helped them to replicate the project in Thailand. It did not come very passing, but insisted and went. When I arrived I was waiting for me the Minister of EnvironmentAnd Tourism. We signed a three -year agreement, I go every two months and we are operating on islands like Pucket or Samui. We work with fishermen and the Association of Divering that is huge. In the pilot test in Pucket, we work with 1000 diversAnd we get 7.5 tons of garbage in a day. "

Awareness work

It costs to write it. What it does not cost is to understand that so much effort needs much more help. "As much as we have taken 250 tons of garbage from the bottom of the sea, if 8,000,000 enter, this is useless. It only serves -like this interview or the project -to raise awareness among people. And this is the idea . Raise awareness of what is happening. Now everyone talks about the ocean but three years ago nobody did it. And educate from childhood to respect the environment. " As he does with his children. Alfredo (11) and Álvaro (8). The name of Ecoalf is for them. "We always talk that planet we are going to leave our children and the important thing is that children are going to leave the planet." Mine are super raised. To Alvarito, when he is asked what his father's father is dedicated, he replies that to collect garbage. And if he sees someone throws something he approaches and says: Don't throw it that my father has to pick up later. "I would like to emphasize that the important thing about this story is the fishermen, who are the ones who are really doing the job. Without them we would do nothing." We return to the brand. And I ask the meaning of the B Corp certify. "It is the most important certificate that they can give you worldwide. The companies that get it, as they say," are not the best companies in the world but the best for the world. "And it is the first fashion company in Spain to The one that gives it to us. They audited us for a year and a half, thoroughly, to see how we manufacture, with what chemists, how much we transport, what we pay to employees, how much in the factories, everything. " And they got it. Because when things are well done, the reward is more than deserved. And they have created a fashion brand that makes different things. And we, having some of its products in our hands, we will think that we are helping. Hopefully many follow your example. Transforming ideas into actions that have an impact on the planet, to change the world, is something admirable. It is clear. Where others see trash, Ecoalf sees high quality prima material. Congratulations.