Recycling : Infinited Fiber Company secures €30 million for recycled fibres sourced from textile waste

Annually, an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste ends up in landfill. By 2030, this number is predicted to reach 134 million tonnes.

Biotech company Infinited Fiber sets their innovative recycling system as a countermeasure against the continued proliferation of textile waste. Taking recyclable items such as cardboard or wood which also sport high proportions of cellulose, the company converts them into high-quality natural fibres. These regenerated fibres are comparable to regular fibres, their look and feel emulating cotton. Said fibres can assume as many different textures as synthetic fibres and can be recycled an infinite number of times. The process is also noteworthy in so much as it is designed to handle hybrid fabrics.

Investors for the circular fashion and textile technology group include Adidas, Invest FWD A/S, investment company Security Trading Oy and Nidoco AB as well as Sateri, the world’s largest producer of viscose.

Infinited Fiber will open its flagship factory in Finland, making use of household textile waste as source material. It will operate from 2024 onwards at a predicted production capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year.

The €30 million euros sponsored by the previously mentioned companies and producers will go into the build of said factory as well as other pilot facilities.

In a statement, Infinited Fiber CEO Petri Alava said: “These new investments enable us to proceed at full speed with the pre-engineering, environmental permits, and the recruitment of the skilled professionals needed to take our flagship project forward. We can now also boost production at our pilot facilities so that we can better serve our existing customers and grow our customer-base in preparation for both our flagship factory and for the future licensees of our technology.”

The company may serve to meet the demand of fast fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara, who are notorious for producing cheap, non-durable clothing. The practice grew out of the need to deliver on brand new catwalk trends but has become particularly worrisome in the past few years as fashion seasons, which used to be limited to four a year now compromise numbers between eleven and fifteen. The continuous recyclability of these fibres may allow brands to cater to customer wishes while helping to lessen individual ecological footprints.