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From ghost fishing to green cycling gear: Axiom makes waves with Oceanweave

B.C. company using reclaimed fabrics to build toward sustainable change

Axiom Oceanweave
Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) trapped in an abandoned drifting net, Balearic Channel, Mediterranean sea. Image: Axiom

When Andrew Belson’s son came running to him crying, after watching a nature documentary about turtles getting trapped in abandoned fishing nets, he decided there must be a way he could get involved. The problem resonated with him, and he had an idea for how he might be able to do something about it through his work at Axiom.

After five years of research and design, that idea is now Oceanweave, Axiom’s unique fabric made entirely from reclaimed fishing nets that had been left drifting at sea. Oceanweave fabric first appeared in Axiom’s Seymour line of commuter bags but, after the success of that initial launch, the company has decided to use the recycled material for its entire range of bags and panniers.

Axiom Oceanweave Seymour

When fishing boats encounter problems, be that tangled nets, bad weather or a range of unexpected scenarios that the open ocean creates, nets are often cut loose and abandoned in the water. Dropping nets lets the fishermen escape dangerous situations safely but the abandoned gear doesn’t just disappear. This practice leads to a phenomenon called “ghost fishing.” Since the nets don’t disintegrate, they continue to catch marine life indiscriminately as the filaments float through the oceans, like the turtle Belson’s son saw on TV.

When Belson started looking into ghost finishing, he learned the massive scale of the problem. Throughout decades of industrial fishing operations, it is now estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fishing nets floating through the ocean. Axiom partnered with Global Ghost Gear Initiative, which co-ordinates not-for-profits, researchers and industry bodies to map the location of these nets, which can be the size of football fields, and try figure out what to do with them.

The huge nets used for fishing out on the ocean are largely made from polyester. Knowing that Axiom already used the same material to make the fabric used in its cycling bags, Belson saw one way he could help to address the problem. He decided to figure out if nets could be recovered from the ocean and repurposed into a new life as bicycle bags.Axiom Oceanweave Seymour

Getting from the idea of recycling fishing nets to the Oceanweave end product took time, though. Belson had to create a way to recycle the nets, and figure out if it was possible to get the quality of material Axiom wanted from that process. The process also had to be economically viable, not just for Axiom, but for its fabric suppliers, for the local fishers Axiom pays to recover the nets, and for consumers buying Axiom’s bags.

Since ghost nets can float in the ocean for decades, part of the reclamation process is removing any measurable trace of heavy metals, harsh dyes and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that were used to make the nets during times of more lax environmental standards. The waste is recycled according to strict South Korean environmental laws at Axiom’s fabric factory. What’s left is re-polymerized into Oceanweave fabric, which Axiom says has exactly the same chemical makeup, performance and quality of brand-new polyester material. Axiom says the reclamation process it has developed ends up using 75 per cent less crude oil to create the Oceanweave fabric from recycled fishnet than creating new materials.Axiom Oceanweave

For Oceanweave to work, Belson knew it had to be economically viable as well as environmentally sound to have the kind of lasting impact he was looking for. Part of the long-term sustainability of the Oceanweave project comes from creating an economic incentive for the reclamation process to continue. Harvesting the abandoned nets and bringing them to Axiom’s South Korea fabric facility creates additional jobs in the local economies, ensuring the supply side of the equation doesn’t become an issue. The reclamation process itself is close enough to the cost of producing new material that the fabric factory was willing to invest in the changes needed to produce Oceanweave.

Seeking long-term sustainability led Axiom to debut its Oceanweave fabric in the entry-level Seymour line of bags, instead of asking consumers to pay a premium for a “green” fabric option. The decision was a big commitment to Oceanweave, but it also meant that Axiom could reduce supply costs by ordering much higher volumes of the fabric. On the other end, Belson says choosing the Seymour line is an extension Axiom’s objective to lower the barriers to cycling, making the choice of an ethically sourced and manufactured product available to consumers as an affordable choice.

Sometimes good things take time, even in the generally straightforward world of bike bags. But when Axiom’s first Oceanweave bags arrived after five years in development they immediately made waves. The design was on point, the bags promised the same level of performance as new material and, along with all that, they were made entirely from recycled fabric.Axiom Oceanweave

The success of Axiom’s initial Oceanweave launch was rewarding, but Belson is more motivated by what comes next. There’s already work in progress to try find a more environmentally friendly source for the plastic buckles Axiom uses on its bags, which are currently the only part of a bag not made of Oceanweave besides the zipper.

More important, the process Axiom developed to reclaim ghost fishing nets has attracted interest from manufacturers outside of the cycling industry. Making one environmentally responsible product work is a success, but that’s not why Belson started Oceanweave. The spread of Axiom’s reclamation process ensures the long-term economic sustainability of the company’s ethically responsible Oceanweave fabric and removes more harmful ghost gear from the ocean.Belson says you should be seeing reclaimed polyester used by several major brands soon.

Another unexpected outcome of the Oceanweave project’s momentum has been that other companies aren’t just approaching Axiom looking to use its reclamation process, they are also reaching out to see if the waste produced as a byproduct of other manufacturing processes could be of use to Axiom. As more companies start looking for ways to recycle or reclaim existing waste products, and work together to reduce the amount of waste that comes out of the production cycle, the more the small steps that started a movement toward ethical production will start to add up and begin to produce real, sustainable environmental change.

The scale of ocean pollution is so massive that it can be hard to imagine how to make any impact, let alone figure out a solution. Belson is upfront that Oceanweave isn’t going to single handedly end the problem of polluted oceans, or even of ghost fishing. But it is something that helps and, crucially, it seems to be the start of something that could spread and start to have a bigger impact.