At House of Faux Fur, we believe saving animals while supporting the recycling of plastics is a key solution for a more responsible textile industry. While waiting for the end of single-use plastics to happen, recycling waste that pollute natural spaces remains a pragmatic solution. This implies an efficient collecting system. That's why we are proud to be Seaqual licensees.
A partner of choice that collects ocean waste and turns it into new fibers that will be eventually used to create new textiles. A curative circularity that is essential since it supports the cleaning of natural areas and raises awareness about the negative impact of plastics when they end in landfills or nature.
Protecting the oceans has become one of the major ecological concerns in recent years. How do you explain this growing interest?
This has become a major cause as we gradually realize that we must not focus only on climate change and its CO2 metric.
We also need to focus on biodiversity loss, which is not necessarily correlated with CO2 impact.
What are the most serious threats currently facing the seas?
For the first time in our history, we are facing a variety of major threats.
Ocean warming and increasing acidity mean that biodiversity is in danger. And the oceans represent the main source of food for a large part of the world's population.
Finally, the other major threat is the ever-increasing amount of plastic entering the oceans, with over 10 million tonnes being dumped every year.
The problem is that 90% of them have "disappeared", gradually degrading into micro-plastics. The magnitude of the consequences is as yet unknown, even if we know that corals and animals ingest some of them, ultimately ending up in our stomachs. Each human absorbs the equivalent of a credit card's worth of micro-plastics every week.
How does Seaqual operates on a daily basis?
SEAQUAL INITIATIVE is unique in the way it helps local communities to collect plastics from rivers and oceans. It helps NGOs and communities in their recovery and in other areas such as education and awareness-raising events.
SEAQUAL INITIATIVE also works with its shareholders, two major textile industries (spinners), to transform these plastics into high-quality yarns.
SEAQUAL INITIATIVE recovers degraded plastics (unlike OBP-Ocean Bound Plastic, which recovers clean plastics up to 50 kilometers inland), which explains why the yarn contains 10% marine matter.
Last but not least, all SEAQUAL INITIATIVE users are required to sign a license, which allows us to control the traceability of the plastic and communicate with a single voice, to avoid greenwashing. This community gives us a sounding board to communicate effectively on the subject of plastics in our environments.
What are the challenges you face? What do you need to do even better?
We need more resources to increase our capacity for recovery, awareness-raising events and educating local populations.
We would like to create a foundation to support these additional activities.
We're also working transparently on what it means to recover degraded marine plastics, and fighting against misleading communications that sell 100% recycled marine yarns, which is simply impossible.
Are you optimistic about the future of our seas and oceans?
The problem is that we don't know yet the impact of the millions of tonnes of plastic that have been dumped into the ocean.
There is a major stake in stopping the influx of new plastics now.
As with climate change, that means now, and right now.
With SEAQUAL INITIATIVE, we can help recover a tiny fraction of the plastic before it degrades into micro-plastics.
We can also help to create a wider awareness of the problem among the population, so that everyone takes responsibility.
