EP 32. David Stover
Not All Recycling Is Equal - Ft. Katie McConnell
For our latest episode we headed across the pond to visit our partners at Bureo®, the company behind NetPlus® – an innovative recycled yarn made entirely of discarded fishing nets with complete traceability from collection through to recycled feedstock. Accompanied by our newest Ambassador, Katie McConnell, they welcomed us to their facility in California where we sat down with founder David Stover to discuss their journey over the last 10 years.
26.09.2024
00:46:13
Hosted by Lawrence Stafford
Sound Design by John Sampson a.k.a CJ MIRRA
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We covered the Bureo® and NetPlus story, from experimental skateboards to changing the global game for recycled fabrics.
We first met David back in 2015, when he rolled into our newly opened London store on one of their first skateboard prototypes. As surfers, David and his co-founders saw their local beaches strewn with plastic and wanted to do something about it – cleaning up those spaces and reimagining that waste as a resource that could be used to make new, useful products.
Fast forward to today and Bureo® has grown massively, moving on from their original product concept to focus more on the collection and processing of discarded nets, to then integrate that new recycled feedstock back into commercial manufacturing streams with the likes of Patagonia and Futures surf fins. In David’s own words, “it’s been quite a ride…”
“Early on we were pretty naive. You see plastic and just assume you can collect it, melt it down and make stuff. That’s a marketing project that people want to make you believe.”
- David Stover
“I think we’ve taken a step from our parent’s generation, to recognise what’s happening and make a difference. But I’m hopeful that the next generation is putting an even greater push on that.”
- David Stover
