From fast-fashion to new textile fibres; development and industrial demonstration of a first-of-a-kind technology for recovery of textile fibres from complex material blends

There is currently no large-scale technology for recycling of textile fibres from complex material blends. Today, on an industrial scale, cotton can be recycled from cotton-polyester textiles, thanks to Södra's innovation OnceMore. With this project, Södra and Lenzing aim to take the next step and develop a first-of-a-kind recycling process that separates cotton from more complex textiles containing a mix of cotton, polyester and other fibers such as elastane. This requires the development of an efficient technology for removing unwanted fibres from cotton. The project will investigate and compare the performance of different separation technologies. The aim is to demonstrate a promising technology under industrially relevant conditions to obtain results that can enable a major investment at Södra Cell Mörrum with the ambition to recycle 25 000 tonnes of recycled textile in 2025. If successful, the technology then has the potential to scale-up to other sites across the world.

Textile