Finland

Across four Nordic countries, an estimated 2,400 tonnes of raw wool are discarded every year—burned, buried, or left unused—while the same countries collectively import over 6,500 tonnes of wool and yarn from abroad. A feasibility study commissioned by Nordic Innovation finds the cause is not fibre quality, but systemic fragmentation: missing infrastructure, absent classification standards, and a near-total lack of regional processing capacity.

Finnish researchers and industry partners are developing a deposit-return collection machine that uses digital product passport data and AI-based imaging to sort used garments for resale or recycling. The TexMat system aims to simplify clothing returns for consumers, improve business profitability for reuse operators, and support higher textile collection and resale rates across Europe.

A collaborative research project by The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland that seeks to address the challenges of energy and resource consumption in the forestry and textile industry is working on a low-carbon, water-efficient technology with the potential to reduce water consumption by up to 90% and overall energy consumption by more than half.

There is a very interesting overlap between the traditional wood pulp industry and new innovative textile fibres, especially manmade cellulosic innovations coming out of the Nordics. These innovative fibres could well change the fashion business. A first hand account of the just-concluded Pulp & Beyond 2024 event in Helsinki.

Finland's sustainable textile material company Spinnova and Swedish textile recycling leader Renewcell, in a first of its kind patented technology collaboration, are spinning textile waste-based fibre into new fibre without harmful chemicals, advancing circularity in the fashion industry.

The Finnish city of Lahti, some 100-odd km to the north of capital Helsinki, has made stupendous progress through its incentive-based collection of textile waste, and has now launched a design competition on how to tackle discarded textiles.

The Finnish University of Jyväskylä is piloting a method, the first of its kind, for corporations to calculate their biodiversity footprint, based on scientific databases and a company’s consumption accounts.

Flying to Finland? Don’t just walk past the world’s first second-hand store at an airport at the Helsinki-Vantaa.

Now, textiles that offer adjustable aesthetics. Work on responsive smart fabrics could help monitor people’s health, improve thermal insulation, and provide new tools for managing room acoustics and interior design.

The turbulence caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the uncertainty in commodity and financial markets has resulted in growing consumer demand for high-quality textiles. Finnish fibre manufacturer Infinited Fibre Company is responding to this demand by scaling up production of its Infinna fibre.