Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024 - 10

[ BRIEFS ] swatches
Södra, Lenzing AG repurpose cotton
and polyester-cotton fiber waste
L
enzing AG, a specialty fiber supplier
headquartered in Lenzing, Austria,
and Södra, a Swedish forestowner
association, jointly developed
OnceMore®
, a process that enables
the recycling of polyester-cotton fiber
blends to make textile pulp.
The process combines textile waste
with wood from responsibly managed
forests to create an alternative to manmade
cellulosic fibers such as viscose
or lyocell, resulting in less pollution.
Södra collects polyester-cotton fiber
blends from textile recycling and waste
management companies and separates
the materials. Cotton fibers are revived
by combining them with wood cellulose
certified by the Forest Stewardship
Council®
and/or wood cellulose that
has a Programme for the Endorsement
of Forest Certification from Swedish
forests, including those owned by Södra
members. Polyester fibers that have
been separated out are incinerated
and made into energy that drives the
OnceMore process.
The pulp, which is Recycle Claim
Standard certified, consists of 20%
recycled textiles, and Södra is working to
increase this to 50%. Right now, Södra
processes only white and off-white
materials, but it is working on trials to
extend the process to colored fabrics.
Lenzing and Södra have worked
together since 2021 to develop the
process, which is used to make Lenzing
fibers with REFIBRA™ technology.
They were jointly awarded a 2023
International Textile Manufacturers
Federation award in the International
Cooperation category.
The textile waste Södra uses has
been collected over several years. The
company requires the waste to be cotton
10 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / August 2024
or poly-cotton materials comprising
a minimum of 70% cotton. Currently,
Södra partners with Lounais-Suomen
Jätehuolto Oy, a Finnish municipal waste
management company; Frankenhuis,
a textile recycling company in the
Netherlands; Rester, a Finnish company
that recovers business textiles to
create new raw materials; the Textile
Services Association, an organization
that represents commercial laundry
and textile rental businesses in the
U.K.; and the Salvation Army.
Södra's sawmills and pulp mills
produce a surplus of green energy,
which is sold to customers in the form
of renewable electricity, heating and
solid biofuels.
" All our three mills today produce
more electricity than they use, " says
Henrik Brodin, head of energy at
Södra, on the company's website.
" In total, we produce almost 2 TWh
[terawatt hours] of electricity, use
1.5 in our operations and are selling
0.5 TWh out to the grid. "
1: A log stacker working in the timber yard at
Södra Wood Värö in Väröbacka, Sweden. Image:
© Södra Skogsägarna/Malin Arnesson
2: Södra's pulp mill in Väröbacka, Sweden.
The mill receives pulpwood sourced from
Södra members' sustainably managed forests,
mainly from spruce and pine trees. The site is
also home to Södra Innovation, a research and
development hub that tests new ideas at the
company's pulp mills and sawmills. Image: ©
Södra Skogsägarna/Ola Kjelbye Fotografi AB
3: A fabric made using OnceMore®
, a pulp
made from recycled polyester-cotton fiber
blends and Forest Stewardship Council®
-
certified wood cellulose and/or wood cellulose
that has a Programme for the Endorsement
of Forest Certification from Swedish forests.
Image: © Södra Skogsägarna
4: Spruce plants in Södra's greenhouse in
Flåboda, Sweden. For every tree the company
harvests, three new ones are planted. Image:
© Södra Skogsägarna
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Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024

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