Hyundai Funding World War II Wreck Site Dives to Clean Oceans

Heathly Seas, a company focused on keeping Earth's oceans clean, estimates that 640,000 tons of fishing gear are lost or abandoned annually in the world's seas and oceans, which leads to the needless suffering of millions of marine animals. To help, the company schedules and participates in scuba dives to retrieve trash, which is eventually upcycled into something new.

Hyundai Motor Company, as part of its "Progress for Humanity" vision, entered its third year of partnership with the Dutch company, and just finished its third major dive to retrieve plastics, nylon and metals from the ocean. The latest mission took place in the Mediterranean Sea where volunteer divers from five countries removed nearly one ton of old fishing nets, cages and other gear.

The Hyundai car brand plans to create shared across its brands value by building a sustainable business ecosystem. "The pursuit of shared values requires the existence of both social and business values. Our partnership with Healthy Seas is one way we realize the creation of such values," Hyundai told Newsweek.

"For social value, we have marine ecosystem restoration by removing ghost nets, educational school programs to help children learn about the importance of keeping our oceans clean, and collaborations with fishermen to prevent fishing nets from ending up in the ocean or landfills."

"For business value, Heathy Seas reclaims fishing nets and other nylon waste to convert into ECONYL, a regenerated nylon yarn used to make new products. Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6 customers can order floor mats made of ECONYL. Recycling also reduces carbon emissions during the manufacturing process," Hyundai said.

The latest Healthy Seas dive at a World War II shipwreck was an unusual site for gear removal, as it still contained several aerial bombs and vehicles. However, historical wrecks like this are important for the marine ecosystem. The dive team took eight days and in addition to other trash, removed a 1,500-pound net that exposed more of the ship's structure, making it safer for fish and coral.

An earlier mission was held at Tossa de Mar, a highly polluted marine area in Costa Brava, Spain. Eight volunteer divers removed a large gill net covering a reef within the boundaries of a marine protected area.

Healthy Seas says that despite being lightweight, gill nets are the most lethal form of marine litter, and that it rescues many organisms from them during the dives. The debris is then sorted on land where the nylon nets will be used by a company called Aquafil, together with other nylon waste, to create synthetic ECONYL to be used in Hyundai Motor Group's products.

"A company communicates with its customers through its products and services. As such, we aspire to provide our customers with products that are responsible. Through sustainability partnerships, we contribute by restoring ecosystems and reducing carbon emission during the manufacturing process," a Hyundai spokesperson said.

t's not just Hyundai brand, Hyundai Motor Group, including Kia and luxury arm Genesis are also doing their parts to help the ocean. Last year Kia began a seven-year partnership with The Ocean Cleanup. The Netherlands-based non-profit organization is developing technologies to get plastic out of the world's oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup removes what's already there and creates systems to stop the plastic in rivers from flowing into the ocean. Kia is supporting the The Ocean Cleanup financially and taking some of the harvested plastics to use in future Kias.

"The Ocean Cleanup Partnership is part of Kia's 'Cleaner and Circular' initiative to realize Kia's ESG vision of "Sustainable Movement for an Inspiring Future". It is a cleaner activity that benefits the ecosystem by creating a clean sea through the collection of marine waste plastics, and also circular activity that prevents waste plastics from returning to nature or being wasted," a Kia representative told Newsweek.

The Genesis brand's ocean sustainability initiative is product driven. It is developing materials and finishes that are more sustainable overall. In the Genesis GV60 some interior fabrics are made from up to 15% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon yarn. This comes from recycled fish nets among other sources.