According to research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the journal *Science*, approximately 640,000 to 800,000 tons of fishing nets and gear are abandoned or lost in the ocean each year, with nylon 6 fishing nets accounting for about 60% to 70% (i.e., 380,000 to 560,000 tons). A group of citizen scientists visited the coast of Taiwan to record the composition of marine debris, finding that up to 70% of it consisted of discarded fishing gear. In Penghu and the Changhua-Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan area, the combined proportion of discarded aquaculture fishing gear and fishing gear exceeded 85%.

• Chemical recycling has obtained GRS certification and is in stable production. ISCC+ certification was obtained in August 2025. Currently, stable production is 8 tons/day.
• Theoretically, physical methods use raw materials with the same chemical structure in the process, but repeated heating can lead to molecular instability, thus posing a certain risk to quality.
• The chemical method involves depolymerization to monomers and then repolymerization, which theoretically would be very similar to the Virgin raw material.
• Because of the batch number consistency, the relative losses in each stage of the process are lower, which is more helpful in reducing carbon emissions.
• Products made from chemically produced raw materials have been validated in the industry (both plain weave and knitted fabrics).