The circular economy company, Rester and the Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto (LSJH) waste management service in collaboration have declared to open Scandinavia’s first large scale textile waste processing plant in the town of Finnish by February 2021.

The first facility in Nordic, Paimion Kehitys is to process industrial waste for commercial reuse. It will be equipped to process 12,000 tonnes of textile waste annually which makes up 10% of Finland’s textile waste.

The pilot plant launched depending upon its success rate could lead to a large facility that has the capacity to handle all the textile waste from every household in Finland. It has been estimated to be developed as early as 2023.

The 3,000 square meter plant built by Rester will be leased to LSJH to, who use  their optical identification technology for sorting textiles. The technology will recycle waste into fibre for various industrial applications. Some of them will include yarn, fabrics, insulation material for marine to construction industries, composites, non woven and filter materials and other technical textiles like geotextiles.

Outi Luukko, chairman of Rester stated that the processing plant would mark the beginning of a new era for the circular textile economy in Finland. He said that they are to launch a system change as the pioneers in the industry in Scandinavia.

He believes this transition of the textile industry from linearity to circularity is highly necessary, as the virgin materials cannot maintain their current structure in the textile industry. He thinks it isn’t even necessary as there is abundant recyclable material available.

He is proud to find a local solution for a global problem as it marks a huge leap towards the right direction and raises Finland's profile in the global circular economy.

Jukka Heikkilä, LSJH CEO stated that on the basis of the experience gathered from the pilot project, Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto is developing a full scale plant in the Turku region. He further added that by 2023 the plant will be equipped to process Finnish household’s end of life textiles. He concluded by stating that the project involves all waste treatment plants owned by Finnish municipalities.

Paimion Kehitys, CEO of Mika Ingi stated that they want to step into the transitioning city and create a significant value for all those involved. He further added that the aim of their service was to support and aid develop a new profitable business by bringing circular economy companies and their new potential customers who have the capability to form new business innovation.