One of the novelties is Domo's expanded range of Technyl 4EARTH recycled solutions, featuring nylons made from post-consumer fishing nets. Domo recycles discarded fish nets, collected by Sea2Sea both at sea and at fish farming locations in Africa, into stable and high-quality grades with up to 100 percent recycled content.
The material manufacturer is seeing "huge demand, more than we can handle" for recycled nylon, Ludovic Tonnerre, chief commercial officer, told Sustainable Plastics. Its customers use it for a myriad of applications, from car components to light switch connectors and plugs.
Domo is a pioneer in nylon recycling, Tonnerre said, pointing out that the company recognized the value in waste long before competitors. It currently makes 13 percent of its sales from recycled nylon and aims to bring this up to 20 percent.
"Fifteen years ago, our company began recognizing the value of waste, long before sustainability was a priority for most of our customers. We initially focused on reprocessing waste, gradually building our expertise. Today, we are the European leader in nylon recycling," he said.
Domo has mastered the recycling of fish nets at its center of excellence in Arco, northern Italy. The Technyl 4EARTH product line is manufactured at the Arco plant, which covers 30,000 square meters and includes eight compounding lines with a nominal capacity of up to 40 kilotons year of technical materials based on nylon 6 and 6/6.
The mechanical recycling process transforms the nylon into a product that matches the quality of virgin materials, according to Tonnerre.
"The great thing about fish nets is that some are uncolored, which gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of coloration. When you recycle colored waste, like black materials, you're limited in what you can do — at best, you might end up with gray. But with uncolored fish nets, we have a much broader range of design options."
Domo processes the material with a wide range of color additives according to customer preferences. It also recycles brown fish nets into a light brown Technyl 4EARTH grade.