TEXTILES.ORG
Lenzing AG, a specialty fiber supplier headquartered in Lenzing, Austria, and Södra, a Swedish forest-owner 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 man-made 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 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.”