The best inventions are not always new. Sometimes they gather dust at the back of a drawer for nearly a century just waiting for the right moment.

At least that was the case with Infinited Fiber Company, a Finnish company established in 2016.

Manufacturing based on the carbamate technology the company patented was studied in the United States already in the 1930s. It was regarded as an option for manufacturing viscose.

The utilisation of a carbamation process for cotton-based textile waste and other cellulose-based side streams yields a new textile fibre. The company calls it Infinna™.

– So far, we have piloted, tested and developed the technology. Next, we want to boldly scale up our operations, says Kirsi Roine, the company’s Chief Customer Officer.

The company is currently working on a factory project in Kemi, northern Finland.

The application for authorisation has been submitted. The factory’s planned annual capacity will be 30,000 tonnes.

– It’s a big step forward, yet we are just scratching the surface, considering the aggregate demand, says Roine.

Several factories of gargantuan proportions will be needed in the future worldwide.

As most of the textile industry value chain is in Asia, that would be an important location for future factories.

The list of brands already partnering up with the Finnish textile company is astonishing.

– We did our first launch with H&M. We embarked on a journey to create jeans together. They ended up becoming a flagship product of sorts for us. There have been all kinds of innovative fibres, but not much experimentation has been done with jeans, explains Roine.

“The list of brands already partnering up with the Finnish textile company is astonishing.”

Other companies piloting Infinna™ include global giants of the fashion world such as Patagonia and Adidas.

– With Patagonia we had a project called Tee-Cycle™, where the company recycled their T-shirts.

As part of the EU’s New Cotton Project, we launched a hoodie and sweatpants for adidas by Stella McCartney. This also helped us generate valuable ideas on how a circular economy chain should be formed, says Roine.

Recycling of luxurious down still in its infancy

Traditional down is a surprisingly costly material with a market price that can be up to €50–200 per kilogram. It is widely used in everyday consumer products such as winter jackets, duvets and furniture.

One might assume that recycling such a material is so profitable that the process is commonplace, but that is not the case.

The recycling rate for down is around one percent – almost non-existent. This shortcoming was something Heikki Kärkkäinen, CEO at Untuvia, personally came up against while trying to recycle his old down jacket.

The main factor contributing to the recycling challenges lies in the characteristics of down. Mechanical wear and tear affects down. It also gets greasy in use, which is problematic particularly in terms of recycling. Extracting or washing grease from down without weakening the material is challenging.

– Nowadays, down is washed aggressively using water. It breaks the structure of the down feathers, causing the quality to suffer. It is also a very water-intensive method, utilising around 200 litres of water per washed kilogramme of down, explains Kärkkäinen.

Untuvia’s solution, which involves a new type of cleansing, is currently in a pilot phase. The new method is based on carbon dioxide in a supercritical state with properties of gas and liquid.

– It can penetrate the structure of a down feather and separate the grease. As the carbon dioxide

sublimates into gas, it extracts the grease from the down. This method considerably improves the quality of recycled down and is completely water-free.

“Several international brands have expressed a desire to begin using solely recycled down.”

Untuvia has already cleansed laboratory batches with excellent results. A larger batch has now been cleansed and is available for clients.

– The level of enthusiasm and interest we have managed to raise has been quite baffling. Demand will be high because several international brands have expressed a desire to begin using solely recycled down, says Kärkkäinen.

Finland holds all the aces

Alongside Untuvia and Infinited Fiber Company, a few other companies also represent the know-how and new wave of Finnish textile technology. These include Spinnova and Ioncell. Finland is, in fact, becoming a significant European centre of excellence in the textile business.

According to Roine, it is only natural that new innovations and deep knowledge of cellulose-based processes are found here in Finland.

– We have, after all, been living off cellulose for centuries. Thanks to our forest industry and wood processing, we have accumulated vast knowledge in the field. We also have great research facilities and schools that have studied the subject, she points out.

It is not just the responsibility of companies to make circular economy happen – society at large needs to change too. Scaling requires circular economy to be made easy for consumers, and its benefits need to be made visible.

– It’s a huge endeavour to get an entire industry to think in a different way, says Roine.

Both Untuvia’s recycled down and Infinited Fiber Company’s production depend on recycled material flow, and there is room to improve the efficiency of material collection.

Both companies expect the EU’s Extended Producer Responsibility policy to boost circular economy and create new channels for recycled textile materials.

– We are trying to build different channels and solutions. We collect down for recycling from hotel bedding as well as directly from consumers. But I believe that in the future the main channel will be the producer responsibility organisations, Kärkkäinen concludes.