If you have been researching sustainable swimwear, you have probably come across the word ECONYL. It appears on brand websites, hangtags, and sustainability reports. But what actually is it, and does it live up to the claims?
Here is a plain-English breakdown.
What is ECONYL?
ECONYL® is a regenerated nylon yarn produced by Aquafil, an Italian textile manufacturer. It is made entirely from nylon waste that would otherwise end up in landfill or the ocean — including ghost fishing nets, carpet scraps, fabric offcuts, and other industrial nylon waste.
The process works like this: waste nylon is collected, cleaned, shredded, and chemically depolymerised back into raw nylon polymer. That polymer is then spun into new yarn. The resulting fibre is chemically identical to virgin nylon — same strength, same softness, same durability — but without the petroleum feedstock that virgin nylon requires.
Where does the waste come from?
The main sources are:
- Ghost fishing nets — nets that have been lost or abandoned at sea, continuing to trap marine life. These are recovered through partnerships with fishing communities and ocean cleanup projects.
- Carpet scraps — post-consumer carpet collected from demolitions and refits.
- Industrial fabric waste — offcuts and pre-consumer manufacturing waste from textile factories.
Aquafil publishes detailed transparency reports on feedstock sourcing and verifies the recycled content through bluesign® and other third-party certifications.
What are the environmental benefits?
Aquafil's own lifecycle analysis shows that producing ECONYL yarn reduces global warming impact by up to 90% compared to producing virgin nylon from petroleum. It also reduces water and energy consumption significantly across the production process.
Crucially, ECONYL can be recycled again at end of life — the same depolymerisation process can break the yarn back down and start over. In principle, it is a closed-loop material.
How does ECONYL perform as a swimwear fabric?
Very well. ECONYL yarn is soft, smooth, and non-restrictive. As a swimwear fabric it is:
- Chlorine-resistant — holds up in pools over multiple seasons
- UV-protective — rated UPF50 in most swimwear constructions
- Colour-fast — the regenerated nylon takes dye consistently
- Shape-retaining — maintains stretch and recovery wash after wash
In practice, swimwear made from ECONYL is indistinguishable from swimwear made from virgin nylon in terms of feel and performance. The environmental benefit comes without a performance trade-off.
What about REPREVE?
REPREVE® is a similar recycled fibre made by Unifi, produced from pre-consumer nylon and polyester waste. It is certified by the National Recycling Foundation and is commonly used in printed swimwear fabrics where ECONYL is used for solids.
At Raw X Salt, our solid colour swimwear — Intenso (black), Zephyr (sky blue), and Clay — is made from ECONYL. Our printed styles — Holiday Blues and Tan Lines — use REPREVE. Both are certified recycled fibres that significantly reduce reliance on virgin petroleum-based nylon.
What to look for when buying ECONYL swimwear
Not all brands that claim to use ECONYL are using it at the same standard. Things worth checking:
- Is the ECONYL certification verifiable? Aquafil licences the ECONYL brand, so brands using it legitimately can point to that relationship.
- What percentage of the garment is ECONYL? Most swimwear is blended with elastane for stretch. A typical mix is 78–82% recycled nylon and 18–22% elastane. Elastane is not currently recyclable, so it is worth knowing the blend.
- Are the dyes certified? The fabric itself may be recycled but the dye process can still use harmful chemicals. Look for OEKO-TEX® or bluesign® certified dyes.
- Is the manufacturing ethical? Sustainable fabric in an exploitative factory is not a sustainable product.
At Raw X Salt, our ECONYL and REPREVE fabrics are dyed using OEKO-TEX® and GOTS-certified processes. Our swimwear is manufactured in Bali by long-term partners whose supply chains we audit directly.
The bottom line
ECONYL is a genuinely better material choice than virgin nylon for swimwear. The environmental benefits are real, the performance is equivalent, and the certification trail is verifiable. It is not a silver bullet — the fashion industry's environmental footprint goes well beyond fibre choice — but it is a meaningful improvement, and it is the standard we have built Raw X Salt around since day one.
If you want to shop our ECONYL swimwear range, start with the full swimwear collection or browse by colour: Intenso (black), Zephyr (sky blue), Clay.