Envalior has announced that Epoca, an Italian designers and manufacturer of garden and household products located in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, has chosen its Akulon RePurposed, a polyamide made from mechanically recycled discarded fishing nets for the production of its new Sealove garden tool collection.
Envalior, founded in 2023, is the name of the joint venture created earlier this year through the combination of DSM's engineering materials unit - which produced DSM’s Akulon family of polyamides - and Lanxess’s high performance materials business. The new engineering materials specialist is co-owned by Advent International (60%) and Lanxess (40%).
Akulon Repurposed is made from 100% abandoned nylon fishing nets that are cut up, cleaned, extruded, inspected for quality, and shipped back to Envalior for compounding. The end-product is a glass fibre reinforced recycle-based polyamide with excellent functional properties.
All tool bodies in Epoca’s Sealove collection are made from this material, bringing the Italian manufacturer another step closer to its goal of having 50% of its gardening collections made with recycled materials by 2030. The launch collection features a wide trowel, narrow transplanter, fan rake, hoe and two size leaf rakes.
Epoca, which discovered the fishing net based polyamide at K 2022 in Düsseldorf, had already embarked on a sustainability journey of its own. The company uses 100% renewably-sourced energy and has switched to electrically powered production machinery.
The Sealove collection joins the company’s Ecolove and Beelove collections as the third member of the Lovelife range, the products in which, the company says, are all made from post-consumer recycled plastics.
Epoca plans to market the Sealove collection globally. The company reported that there initial feedback from customers who have seen the products indicates 'excitement' about the new garden tool brand.