SEAQUAL OCEAN PROJECT

The plastic is turned into SEAQUAL fibres, which are used to produce high-quality yarns. The current collection uses the SEAQUAL yarn for the OCEAN T series’ sustainable T-shirts.Every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in our oceans. According to scientific extrapolations, by 2050 the mass of all the plastic in the oceans will be greater than that of all marine creatures. 75 % of the plastic ends up on the seabed and endangers the unique ecosystem there. Plastic waste has now become one of the greatest threats to the environment. Therefore, one of the most important tasks we face is not to produce even more plastic in the future, but rather to reuse it. For JACK WOLFSKIN, the SEAQUAL partnership represents another step towards recycling valuable resources, as well as offering a chance to add more recycled materials to its range. The Steingässer family, who are brand ambassadors for JACK WOLFSKIN, support the SEAQUAL OCEAN PROJECT.

ACTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION – CLEAN SEAS, NEW YARN

For fishermen, the ocean is their livelihood, but increasingly, they are catching more plastic and waste than fish. 1,500 fishermen from the Barcelona area with their 400 boats have joined the SEAQUAL OCEAN PROJECT. Each day they collect a tonne of plastic waste from the bottom of the Mediterranean and bring it back to land with their catch. Here, the waste is sorted into different materials and sent to recycling stations. PET bottles are shredded into flakes and pressed into pellets. And these pellets are eventually extruded into SEAQUAL fibres. Each kilogram of SEAQUAL produced means one less kilo of waste on the ocean floor. The fibres can in turn be used to make high-quality products.

SUPPORT FROM BRAND AMBASSADORS

The Steingässers, JACK WOLFSKIN’s brand ambassador family, are enthusiastic about the SEAQUAL idea and went to see the project in Spain. Jana Steingässer, an ethnologist and writer, and her husband Jens, a photographer, have been travelling the world with their four children for eight years now, investigating signs of climate change. As part of their environmental journalism project, they are currently studying a whole range of issues to do with water.For the SEAQUAL project, the Steingässer family accompanied Spanish fishermen from the Barcelona area, helped sort the plastic waste from the catch and followed the recycling process that turns the PET waste into high-quality yarns. ‘SEAQUAL is an important project for making the issue of plastic waste visible,’ says Jana Steingässer. ‘Instead of being tipped back into the sea, the plastic is now brought to land and recycled.’ The partnership sends a strong signal and supports consumers who want to shop responsibly in terms of resources and the environment. The SEAQUAL OCEAN PROJECT adds another dimension to JACK WOLFSKIN’s use of recycled materials.

OCEAN T MEN

OCEAN T WOMEN