Finland doubles down on bio-based fibres research
26/04/2022
The textile industry is looking for more sustainable replacements for materials, including polyester and cotton, and VTT says the solution is using more wood-based fibres.
Pirjo Heikkilä, the project's coordinator at VTT, said: “VTT’s role is to develop recycling solutions for these textiles made of high standard, mostly plastic-based, synthetic fibres. VTT has already created processes for recycling plastics in its previous projects. They have been successfully tested in the side-lines of technical textile production. We will continue developing our processes to utilise used, dirty, technical products in composite production as well.”
The public research project is funded by Business Finland together with 17 other businesses and organisations and will run until 31 January 2024.
Satumaija Levón, chief advisor at Suomen Tekstiili & Muoti, the Finnish Textile & Fashion association, added: “The long-term Finnish research and development work around the circular economy of textiles has received international recognition. It is important to continue the work now when textiles are a hot topic also on the EU level. We want to do our part in supporting the operations of a network that involves every link of the value chain. It has played an important role in the rapid progress of the circular economy of textiles in Finland in the last few years.”
The market for sustainable man-made cellulosic fibres is growing rapidly. A number of these are Finnish, such as Aalto University's Ioncell fibre, Metsä Spring's Kuura fibre, Spinnova's fibre and Infinited Fibre Company’s Infinna fibre.
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