At MANERA, we believe the best way to be eco-friendly is to create durable products. We want our gear to last for years, and to guarantee quality and performance overtime.
However, as much as we’d like, wetsuits can’t last forever. They gradually wear out overtime and have essentially nowhere to go once they reach the end of their lives. Consequently, millions of old or unusable wetsuits lie in landfills each year. On top of that, wetsuits and other neoprene products have been extremely hard to recycle until now.
Launched in 2022, the Circular Flow initiative developed new technology and manufacturing processes that bond the particles from shredded wetsuits without removing the textile laminate. In turn, it produces a neoprene sheet, a stable and durable recycled material capable of being used to manufacture a wide range of new products.
Circular Flow’s technology and manufacturing processes mean that they can :
- Process 100% of the returned neoprene items, including zips and plastic elements.
- Create recycled neoprene sheets 100% fit for manufacturing new neoprene items.
- Manufacture items.
- Accept the recycled product back for recycling up to seven times, which can extend the life of an item from on average 2 to over 20 years.
This is a full-scale recycling process with zero waste and zero use of water – another first for the industry.
MANERA partnered with Circular Flow in November 2022, aiming to address the neoprene waste problem by collecting wetsuits and neoprene items at local shops to then turn them into new and useful neoprene products.
Currently, it is complicated to make wetsuits from wetsuits as recycled neoprene loses its stretch. However, we have started manufacturing actual MANERA goods that do not require that, like car seat covers.
As of February 2024, we had collected 220 kg of used neoprene and hence manufactured 124 recycled car seat cover.
At this time, this recycling program is available in select shops around France. We are hoping to expand it to more shops around the country and Europe in the near future.
If you’d like to contribute, you can drop off your end-of-life or redundant wetsuits from any brand, as well as any other neoprene item, at one of the shops listed below. As long as it’s dry and clean, we will take care of the rest.
Our partner shops in France :
Down the road, our main objective is to achieve neutrality and recycle as many wetsuits as we produce.