Discarded fishing nets account for at least 10% of global marine litter, yet they are among the most destructive forms of ocean pollution, entangling marine life and degrading ecosystems for decades.
Against this backdrop, Hyundai Motor America has renewed its collaboration with Healthy Seas, a nonprofit dedicated to waste recovery and recycling, expanding efforts in the United States through a dual focus on large-scale underwater cleanups and education initiatives.
The partnership’s 2025 agenda includes four major underwater cleanup missions, beginning with the removal of fishing nets and debris from the Tuna Clipper wreck near Catalina Island. These sites, popular among divers and fishers, have seen biodiversity threatened by ghost nets and plastics that trap species such as seals, lobsters, and torpedo rays. Hyundai’s involvement extends beyond logistics, helping finance operations that convert recovered nylon waste into ECONYL®, a regenerated yarn widely used in textiles. By linking marine conservation to circular economy applications, the initiative aims to demonstrate a material pathway from pollution to resource.
This year also marks the first time that education is formally embedded in the U.S. program. Hyundai employees recently joined a beach cleanup in Huntington Beach, complemented by a workshop for the Boys & Girls Club of Huntington Valley. More than 30 students took part in “If the Ocean Could Speak,” an activity designed to explore the ecological significance of oceans and the consequences of pollution through origami-based learning. While modest in scale, the program reflects a deliberate effort to seed awareness among younger generations, who are seen as critical to scaling long-term cultural and behavioral change in marine protection.
For Healthy Seas, which has led cleanup missions across Europe, South Korea, and now the U.S., the shift toward education reflects a strategic broadening of scope. “Protecting the seas means engaging not just divers or scientists, but entire communities, starting with the next generation,” said Veronika Mikos, director of the Healthy Seas Foundation. The nonprofit’s model emphasizes collaborative impact—partnering with corporations, local governments, and volunteers to accelerate waste recovery and recycling, while pressing industries linked to marine waste to rethink disposal practices.
Hyundai frames its role as part of a wider corporate sustainability agenda. Alongside its Healthy Seas collaboration, the automaker continues long-term reforestation partnerships, including with One Tree Planted and its global “IONIQ Forest” initiative. While such efforts align with corporate social responsibility trends, they also respond to mounting scrutiny of automakers’ environmental footprints, particularly in relation to supply chains and energy transitions.
