From Fishnets to High-End Carpets: How Circular Economy is Shaping the Future of Design

Ever wondered how your carpet might one day come from the ocean?

I recently had the chance to visit ECONYL? brand yarn production facility in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as part of a trip organized by Interface , a pioneer in sustainable carpet manufacturing.

What I saw was the future of recycling—taking discarded fishing nets and textile waste and turning them into high-end nylon yarn. But the story goes deeper than just carpets. It’s about how circular economy principles can reshape industries, including architecture, by making products endlessly reusable.

Let’s dive into the science and the surprises behind the process of creating sustainable materials.

Why We Need the Circular Economy: A Race Against Waste

The world is drowning in waste—especially plastic waste. Every year, millions of tons of plastic end up in our oceans, endangering marine life. One of the most devastating examples is ghost fishing nets, abandoned or lost at sea, which account for a staggering 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. These discarded nets continue to trap and kill sea creatures, from fish to turtles, long after they’ve been left behind.

One powerful image that stuck with me during the trip was a photo of a sea turtle entangled in old fishing nets. This visual starkly reminded me why circular economy efforts like Econyl’s are so vital. Econyl works to collect these discarded nets from oceans, preventing them from causing further harm to marine ecosystems. By recycling the nylon from these nets, Econyl gives them a new life as high-quality yarn, proving that waste can be a valuable resource in the right hands.

Nylon vs. Other Plastics: Why It Leads the Circular Economy

One of the most exciting things about nylon is that it’s a mono-material, meaning it consists of a single type of polymer, unlike many mixed plastics. This makes it ideal for recycling, as it can be returned to its pure form—polyamide—without losing any of its original properties. Other plastics, like polyester, degrade with each cycle of recycling, making them less useful over time, a process called downcycling. But with nylon, we get endless recycling without sacrificing quality, which is essential for a true circular economy.

Step-by-Step: The Transformation from Waste to Yarn

The process of turning waste materials into new nylon yarn was nothing short of fascinating. Here's how the magic happens:

• Sourcing the Waste: The materials come from two key sources—post-consumer waste, like fishing nets, and post-industrial waste, such as scraps from luxury brands like Prada. This step is a logistical challenge, with materials collected from all over the globe, often from remote locations

• Cleaning and Distillation: Once the materials arrive, they’re rigorously cleaned to remove contaminants like coatings and colors. Then, they go through a distillation process, which strips away everything except the pure polyamide. This is a complex process, similar to oil refining, but it leaves us with a material that’s identical to virgin nylon made from crude oil.

• Spaghetti to Yarn: After purification, the nylon is melted and formed into long strands called spaghetti. These strands are then chopped into small granules, which are melted again and spun into yarn—ready to be used in everything from carpets to luxury fashion items.

Fun Fact: The Econyl plant is the largest consumer of electricity in Slovenia! Recycling nylon takes a huge amount of energy, and the location of the plant plays a big role in its efficiency. Slovenia’s energy infrastructure supports this high-demand process, but in the future, any region with abundant renewable energy could become a hub for such circular industries. Imagine placing these recycling plants in cities powered by solar, wind, or geothermal energy, turning waste into sustainable products without a major carbon footprint.

Location, Energy, and Logistics: Why Slovenia?

The Econyl plant’s location in Ljubljana was chosen for historical reasons, but the nature of the material it processes—waste—means it could technically be placed anywhere. The real driving factor for the future of such facilities will be energy availability. The plant's massive energy consumption (it's the largest electricity consumer in the country) shows that sustainable energy is critical for such operations. Regions with abundant renewable energy sources will be prime candidates for similar recycling facilities.

Moreover, Econyl has found creative ways to reuse energy. The plant recycles excess heat generated during production to warm a nearby swimming pool—showcasing how circular economy principles can extend beyond materials to energy use. But this is just the beginning. Imagine a future where industrial excess heat is integrated into urban heating systems or even used to power other industries. This kind of energy symbiosis could revolutionize the way we think about waste in urban environments.

The Luxury Market: A Surprising Driver for Sustainable Materials

What I found particularly intriguing during this trip was how the luxury market could drive down the costs of recycled materials. Take TESLA for example: they began with a high-end, expensive product, the Roadster, before scaling down to more affordable, mass-market models. Similarly, luxury brands like Prada Group are already using recycled nylon for their high-end fashion lines. A jacket made from recycled nylon might cost minimum €450 due to the complex recycling process, but as more luxury brands adopt these materials, the increased demand could drive costs down, making recycled nylon more accessible across industries.

The luxury market, with its purchasing power, might just be the push needed to bring circular materials into the mainstream, much like how Tesla popularized electric vehicles.

Interface’s Carbon-Negative Carpets: A Flooring Revolution

During the tour, I saw how Interface is using recycled nylon yarn to create sustainable carpet tiles, some of which are even carbon-negative. That means these carpets remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit during production—a huge step forward for the design industry.

Most of their tiles contain only 3.6 kg of CO? per square meter, far lower than traditional carpeting. But here’s the kicker—these modular carpet tiles aren’t just for office spaces anymore. They’re now being embraced in residential spaces, thanks to their flexibility and ease of use. Need to replace a tile? Just pop it out and replace it, rather than redoing an entire room. For anyone looking for sustainable, adaptable flooring, carpet tiles offer an exciting solution.

Designing for Circularity: Why Architects Must Lead the Way

The biggest lesson from my trip wasn’t just about recycling nylon—it was about how we, as architects and designers, need to rethink the entire lifecycle of our products. Currently, many industries, especially construction, operate on a linear economy model: we take raw materials, create products, and then throw them away. Even recycling, as it exists today, often leads to downcycling, where materials lose their quality over time.

But the circular economy is different. It’s about designing materials and systems so they can be endlessly reused, without losing their properties. Nylon, thanks to its mono-material nature, fits perfectly into this model. But many plastics, composites, and construction materials aren’t designed with recyclability in mind. We need to change that.

Apple has already set an example by designing products that are easy to disassemble and recycle. In architecture, we need to follow suit. That means using mono-materials, avoiding complex material mixtures, and designing buildings with deconstruction in mind, so that at the end of their lifecycle, they can be recycled as easily as nylon.

The Future: Where Circular Economy and Energy Meet

As much as materials are a part of this story, energy is equally crucial. The Econyl plant’s massive energy consumption shows that the future of circular industries depends heavily on where they are located. Regions with abundant renewable energy will become the powerhouses of circular manufacturing. Imagine cities designed not only to produce goods but to use their own excess heat and energy in a closed loop system.

This is the future we should be aiming for—not just in textiles but in architecture and urban planning. Circularity isn’t just about materials; it’s about integrating entire systems to work together, so that nothing—whether it’s heat, energy, or raw materials—ever goes to waste.

Conclusion: Designing a World Where Nothing is Wasted

My trip to Ljubljana was more than just a look at how nylon can be recycled—it was a glimpse into the future of design. By embracing circular economy principles, we can create systems where mate

rials are endlessly reused, waste is minimized, and energy is efficiently repurposed.

As architects, designers, and industry leaders, the challenge is clear: How can we design buildings and products that are not just sustainable but circular? What can we do today to create a world where materials never become waste?

A Heartfelt Thank You

I would like to extend a huge thank you to the amazing teams at Interface and Econyl for making this trip possible. Special thanks to Gianluca Bernardi and Martin Pfeiffer from Aquafill Group / ECONYL? brand for his deep insights into the process, and to Karsten Grosskopf , Katrin Brose and Janine Thorwirth from Interface for showing us the real-world applications of these incredible materials. Your dedication to sustainability and innovation is inspiring, and I’m excited to see how we can continue pushing the boundaries of circular design together.