Aquapor, through its company Luságua, collected 4.5 tons of fishing nets from Algarve ports between June last year and March this year, which it sent to be recovered and reused in textile production. This work, which aims to promote the sustainable use of marine resources, is part of the Blue Bioeconomy Pact, led by Inovamar, with a specific focus on the textile vertical, coordinated by TMG Textiles.
According to Cláudia Guerreiro, Head of R&D, CSR|ESG at Aquapor, “the project aims to develop a new line of clothing and footwear with materials based on algae biomass and the use of fishing nets.
She explains that “participation in cutting-edge projects is one of the focal points of Aquapor’s innovation strategy” and that it is important to leverage textile production in a context of circularity, using waste from other value chains.
“What we want to focus on is the potential of value chains based on the concept of the blue economy, the worrying issue of microplastics and the importance of protecting marine life,” he says, stressing that it is ”crucial to guarantee the quality of the separation and recovery processes for raw materials in order to ensure the characteristics of the end products produced from the incorporation of raw materials.”
The Blue Bioeconomy Pact is part of the mobilizing agendas for Business Innovation provided for in the RRP, worth 133 million euros of investment by 2025. It brings together various national industries, with a total of 83 national entities.
