NetPlus® material is made from 100% recycled discarded fishing nets collected in fishing communities in South America.

The world’s oceans are choking in plastic. Globally, 8.8 million tons of mismanaged plastic enter oceans every year, most of it single-use. Discarded, derelict fishing nets in the marine environment are one of the most harmful forms of plastic pollution—scientists estimate more than 650,000 marine animals are killed or seriously injured every year after being trapped in fishing gear.

Old, frayed and torn fishing nets are discarded partly because of a lack of end-of-life solutions. Bureo®, a company based in California, is trying to fix this and to provide a responsible alternative to virgin plastics by working directly with fishing communities in South America. Through their program, nets are sorted, cleaned and shredded in Chile and then recycled into NetPlus®, a 100% fully traceable postconsumer material. This program keeps hundreds of tons of discarded nets out of the ocean each year and provides supplemental income to coastal communities.

We started experimenting with pre-consumer recycled versions of spandex in recent years, and we first added recycled spandex into our line in 2020. It has the same stretch properties of virgin spandex fiber, and it allows us to make use of materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

For the past five years, Patagonia has supported Bureo’s development of NetPlus through Tin Shed Ventures®, Patagonia’s venture capital fund. Today, NetPlus is used in a range of products from Patagonia's hat brims and jackets to Costa sunglasses and Futures surf fins—even Jenga games.

By turning fishing nets into hat brims and fabric, we have helped keep more than 149 metric tons of waste plastic out of the world’s oceans. While hat brims were fairly straight forward, our material developers had to work closely with our supply-chain partners to figure out a way to chemically transform the plastic in the fishing nets into a high-quality yarn that can be used in our garments, too. Now we have. This Fall 2021 season, 104 metric tons of nets will be woven into Patagonia clothing.

By developing NetPlus materials with Bureo, we have supported the collection and recycling of more than 400 tons of discarded fishing nets. We will continue to incorporate NetPlus material into more Patagonia products over the next few years.