Ocean & Beach clean-ups are events or programs performed by registered organizations to clean marine litter from our beaches and coasts, ocean floor and surface, rivers and estuaries.

Marine litter is waste of any type that has been lost or discarded in the marine environment and is found on beaches and coasts, the ocean floor and surface, rivers and estuaries.

Marine litter can be collected in a variety of ways depending upon the ocean clean-up. Marine litter can be collected directly from beaches by hand or it can be collected from the ocean in fishermen’s nets or other systems dedicated to capturing marine litter at sea or in rivers and estuaries.

Skizo collaborates with ocean clean-ups performed by local communities, NGOs, fishermen, research institutes, and regional and national authorities.

The frequency of the ocean clean-up depends upon the organization or community performing the ocean clean-up. Fishermen may collect marine litter every day; beach clean-ups are often weekly, monthly or one-off events.

Marine litter for transformation it’s collected from Portuguese coast. However, we recognize the importance of providing local solutions to global problems and global markets and for this reason, is in the process of opening operations for transforming locally-sourced waste at other strategic locations globally.

Ocean & Beach clean-ups collect all types of marine litter; plastic, metal, glass, rubber, and mixed material items – everything from shoes to old TV’s

This depends on where, how and when the marine litter was collected. In regions of the world where there is little or no infrastructure for the collection and recycling of plastics, the ratio of plastics can be much higher than in regions where there are good waste management systems. The ratio of plastic also varies greatly depending upon whether the marine litter was collected from a beach, where the majority of the waste has been carried by the tides and so the quantity of lighter materials such as plastics is very high, or from the ocean floor where heavier materials such as glass and metals are more likely to be retrieved as well. Different seasons also affect the ratio, for example the level of plastic in touristic locations such as the Mediterranean increases during the summer months. Generally, it is considered that between 60% and 80% of marine litter is plastic, reaching 95% in some regions.

The most common types of plastic found in marine litter are: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) – water and drinks bottles. Polypropylene (PP) – straws, bottle tops, shampoo and detergent bottles, fruit crates. High-density Polyethylene (HDPE) – Shampoo and detergent bottles, plastic milk bottles, ice-cream containers. Low-density Polyethylene (LDPE) – Shopping bags, food packaging and film. Polyamide (PA) – pieces of fishing nets, ropes and cords.

Marine litter from our beaches and coasts, ocean floor and surface, rivers and estuaries is collected by ocean & beach clean-ups. It is then sorted into different material types. The plastic portion is cleaned and transformed into Upcycled Plastic From the Ocean at our partners approved facilities.

Upcycled plastic from the Ocean, our Skizo YARN® is a sustainable, fully traceable raw material that is made from marine litter.

The marine litter is transformed into an yarn by our partners in Portugal.

We operate a Chain of Custody (CoC) throughout the supply chain, from the ocean & beach clean-up to the final retail product. The CoC is a system of procedures and documents that trace the raw material from its origin to its end use. Our CoC starts with a Certificate of Origin guaranteeing that the plastic has been removed from the marine environment. This certificate is signed by the registered organization responsible for the clean-up or the licensed waste management company collecting the marine litter from them.

In most cases, all of the marine litter that can be recycled is recycled. Unfortunately, mixed-material items are often not easily recycled.

Skizo YARN® is a new sustainable, fully-traceable raw material that is made from plastic collected from the ocean & beach clean-ups.

Plastic marine litter, or in some cases other plastics used in aquaculture (such as those used in mussel and oyster farming), is sorted into different polymer types. Each polymer type is then compressed into a ‘bale’ (a block) for transportation. The bales are then transported to specialist recycling centers where they are washed and prepared to be turned into ‘chips’ (also known as ‘nurdles’ or ‘pellets’). The process can be different depending upon the type of plastic. In the case of polyester, ‘bales’ of PET bottles are transported to the ‘flake’ manufacturer. Here, the bottles are cut into small pieces called ‘flakes’ and then the bottle caps, labels, glue and any residual contents are separated and removed. The resulting 100% PET ‘washed flakes’ are then transported to the ‘chip’ manufacturer, who melts and extrudes the PET into long spaghetti-like ‘threads’ which are then cut into short ‘chips’. These ‘chips’ are the raw material used by industry to manufacturer yarns or injection molded plastics.

Skizo YARN® is made by our partners at approved facilities in Portugal.

Skizo YARN® refers to a range of polymers that are made from marine plastic. Skizo YARN® can be developed for use in most applications where virgin plastics are currently used.

We operate a Chain of Custody (CoC) throughout the supply chain, from the ocean clean-up to the final retail product. The CoC is a system of procedures and documents that trace the material from its origin to its end use. Our CoC starts with a ‘Certificate of Origin’ guaranteeing that the plastic has been removed from the marine environment. This certificate is signed by the registered organization responsible for the clean-up or the licensed waste management company collecting the marine litter.

Yes, this yarn is a fully traceable raw material. It’s operated a Chain of Custody (CoC) to track the material through all transformation processes and a ‘DNA’ tracer is added to the polymer before it is returned to industry.

Yes, this yarn has GRS and OEKO-TEX certification.

Yes, this yarn is a fully traceable raw material. It’s operated a Chain of Custody (CoC) to track the material through all transformation processes from collected waste to this Plastic From the Ocean ‘chip’. The Plastic From the Ocean ‘chip’ also contains a ‘DNA’ tracer that can be detected by our partner LAB in polymer, semi-finished and finished goods.

Yes, for each batch of marine litter a ‘Certificate of Origin’ is provided by the registered organization responsible for the clean-up or the licensed waste management company collecting the marine litter. This forms part of a ‘Chain of Custody’ for material traceability.

A chemical ‘DNA’ tracer that can be detected by our partner LAB is added to the polymer. This tracer can be detected in polymer, semi-finished or finished goods containing the polymer. Only we and our partner LAB know how to detect the tracer.

Our textile is a high quality 100% post-consumer recycled polyester yarn containing Upcycled Plastic From the Ocean and recycled polyamide yarn containing Old and discarded fishnets. Our textile is almost identical in physical properties to standard recycled polyester or recycled polyamide and is available in continuous filament in a variety of sizes and finishes. Our textile it can be used in a multitude of applications including apparel and accessories, contract and automotive upholstery, home furnishings and technical textiles. Our Skizo YARN® contains approximately 25% Upcycled Plastic From the Ocean (from marine litter), the remaining 75% is post-consumer PET from land sources.

Ocean clean-ups collect the marine litter. The marine litter is transported by licensed waste management companies to our partner approved sorting centers. The waste is sorted into plastics and non-plastics. The plastic is sorted into different polymer types. Each polymer type is then compressed into ‘bales’ (a large block) for transportation. The ‘bales’ of PET bottles are then sent to a partner approved ‘flake’ producer. The ‘bales’ of PET bottles are opened, and the bottles are shredded into small pieces (‘flakes’). At this stage, other materials such as the bottle tops, labels, glues used on the labels and any residual waste, such as sand, are removed and separated in a washing process. The 100% PET washed ‘flakes’ are then sent to a partner approved ‘pellets’ The ´pellets´ manufacturer mixes the marine litter PET flakes with post-consumer PET flakes from land sources. The mixed ‘flakes’ are heated until molten and forced through an extruder, where long spaghetti-like ‘threads’ are formed and then chopped into small lengths or ‘chips’ The ‘chips’ are sent to the partner licensed yarn manufacturer. The partner licensed yarn manufacturer ‘melt spins’ the polymer chips. Molten polymer is forced through a spinneret (metal block with tiny holes) and viscous threads fall by gravity, cooling as they fall. Thousands of threads are produced at the same time, with between 34 and 134 threads being used to create each yarn. The threads are combined and wound onto a bobbin at high speed (approximately 300km/h). The bobbins are transported to the texturing plant, where the yarn is given texture. The textured yarn is shipped to our partner licensed textile manufacturers.

There are currently four licensed manufacturers of our textile, and all are located in Portugal.

All our textile and products are made in Portugal. We use the best techniques and know-how available. Our products are all handmade and premium.

Our textile is currently produced as 100% recycled post-consumer polyester and 100% recycled polyamide. We will offer textile in other polymer types in the future

Yes, is recyclable.

Our textile made with Skizo YARN® is composed of approximately 25% plastic from the ocean and 75% post-consumer PET from land-based sources. In some cases we also add other yarns to adapt the fabric to our final product.

Today, the land-based post-consumer PET comes from plastics recycled from NGO´s, from Clean-up Initiatives, mainly from Portugal. Looking to also include land-sourced PET recovered from our environment, so that we can also support more clean-up projects recovering waste lost in our environment on land.

When Skizo started in December 2018, we worked exclusively with marine litter collected in fishermen’s nets on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, since April 2021 we started working exclusively to clean up the Portuguese coast. PET now accounts for 23% of marine litter taken from the ocean by fishermen, which means that for every kilogram of our fabric, about 1 kilogram of marine litter was taken from the ocean (our fabric contains approximately 25% recycled plastic from the ocean) . The 23 percent figure was known because the fisher program was underway and data on marine litter was collected and reported. We are now starting from scratch and we are initiating ocean cleanups that collect marine litter from our beaches and coasts, ocean floor and surface, rivers and estuaries. Some of these cleanups are ongoing programs, others are one-off events. As the composition of marine litter can vary enormously depending on how and where it was collected, and even at what time it was collected, it is not possible to say that all marine litter contains 23% PET (for example, the percentage of PET at the bottom of the the ocean off the coast of the Netherlands is much lower, perhaps only 6% or 8%, while the percentage of PET on a beach in Ghana may be 55% or more). We estimate that for every kilo of our textiles, between 600 grams and 1 kilo of marine litter was removed from our oceans.

It depends on the size of the bottle. There are 33 1.5 liter plastic bottles in each kilo of our textile, of which 8.25 will have come from the ocean, or 72 330ml plastic bottles, 18 of which will have come from the ocean. However, Skizo is not a project to recycle plastic ocean bottles, it is an initiative to educate, help and clean our oceans of all types of marine debris. The ocean cleanup partners we work with remove all types of plastic (PET, PA, PP, HDPE, LDPE) as well as glass, metals, rubber and mixed material objects from our oceans. In some cases, PET bottles represent less than 17% of the waste taken from the ocean. When you buy our products made with Skizo YARN®, you are supporting ocean and beach cleanup, not plastic bottle recycling. For this reason, we prefer to talk about the amount of marine litter taken from our oceans, not just bottles. Skizo estimates that for every kilo of our textiles, between 600 grams and 1 kilo of marine litter has been removed from our oceans.

The physical properties of our textile are almost identical to those of standard recycled polyester .

All fibers, natural and synthetic, have the potential to release microfibers during their lifetime. The factors that determine whether microfibers are released and in what amount are primarily related to the construction of fabrics made with that yarn. Fabrics such as “wool” or other fabrics where the yarn is deliberately broken or damaged release more microfiber. Fabrics made without ‘destructive’ finishing processes are more durable ​​and therefore will release less or no microfiber. Our fabric is a high quality polyester and polyamide with excellent durability, helping to drastically reduce or eliminate microfiber release. Our partners are licensed manufacturers with concerns about microplastics, for this reason the entire construction of our textiles goes through several proofs of concept and preparation so that the breakage of the structure is minimized.