Contact person
Aleksandra Kozlowski
Forskare
Contact Aleksandra
Closed-loop recycling of wool/synthetic blend textiles
Textile production of today almost exclusively uses virgin raw materials. A lot of the textiles, especially clothing, are only used for a short period of time whereafter they become waste.
This project aims to close the loop, by developing new methods to use wool-based textile waste as raw material for new textile fibres.
The only textile recycling method in use today is mechanical recycling, where fabrics and garments are shredded and then reshaped into, for example, felts, blankets and insulating materials.
Textile materials are often composed of a blend of fibre materials, where the fibre constituents each contribute with some attractive characteristic such as moisture absorption, abrasion resistance, shine or a low price. The fact that the included fibres have such different characteristics, can make mechanical recycling of these textiles difficult. Moreover, mechanical recycling causes fibre shortening and inevatibly results in downcycling.
In this project we aim to develop methods for chemical recycling of wool/synthetics blend textiles by:
1. separation and dissolution of the different fibre components.
2. wet- and melt spinning of new textile fibres from the recycled raw materials.
Summary
Project name
Recycling of wool/synthetic textiles
Status
Active
RISE role in project
Coordinator
Project start
Duration
Four years
Partner
Filippa K, Woolpower, Paulo de Oliveira, Südwolle
Funders
Project members
Fredrik Bäcklund Aleksandra Kozlowski Oleksandr Nechyporchuk Max Anderhell Anja Lund
Supports the UN sustainability goals
9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
12. Responsible consumption and production