Who’s up for stopping our wasteful ways and reimagining trash as a resource? This week’s guest is proving fashion can be made from entirely from recycled materials.
He is Javier Goyeneche, president and founder of Ecoalf, the Spanish clothing company that pioneers high-tech new materials made from waste.
If you’re a sustainability nerd, you’ve no doubt heard of Ecoalf. It was Spain’s first B-corp and Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan - a few years back she did a collab with them for Goop.
They’ve developed fabrics from used coffee grounds, cotton waste from the cutting room floor, old fishing nets and car tyres and ocean plastic, and they’ve created a cult brand in the process, focused on timeless sporty pieces designed to last.
We’ve all heard of recycled poly made from discarded PET bottles, some even collected from our shorelines and beaches. But Javier set his sights on cleaning up the open ocean. The Ecoalf Foundation has partnered with thousands of fishermen in Spain and Thailand to fish for the ocean plastic that’s turned into Ecoalf’s Upcyle the Oceans yarn. “We’re not a story-telling company, we’re a story-doing company,” says Javier.
This inspiring episode is about what it takes to succeed, and how to harness big ideas. And it’s a call to action: As the Ecoalf shirts say, “There is no Planet B."
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