On the facade of the building, the three letters in red – SCA, for “Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget”, the Swedish paper giant – recall the history of the place. Here, on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, 380 kilometers north of Stockholm, in the municipality of Sundsvall, up to 800 workers worked in the Ortviken paper mill.
Inaugurated in the mid-1950s, it did not resist the decline in the sale of printed newspapers. In 2020, SCA decided to refocus its production on paper pulp. A total of 700 employees were made redundant.
For eighty of them, the reconversion was rapid. They were hired by the start-up Renewcell, which had just moved into the premises sold by SCA, with one ambition: to revolutionize the fashion sector, by manufacturing cellulose from used clothes. A technique developed by researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, which makes it possible to transform old clothes into new textiles, thanks to a chemical recycling process inspired by the wood industry.
Inaugurated on November 10, 2022 in Sundsvall, the plant, designed for industrial production, is the first of its kind in the world. “We are going to start by producing 60,000 tonnes of dissolving pulp, enough to manufacture the equivalent of 300 million T-shirts, but we are already aiming for double that by the end of 2023, and 360,000 tonnes by 2030”explains Kristina Elg Christoffersson, Director of Technology Development at Renewcell.
The hall of the building is filled with bundles of old clothes. Jeans especially, of all colors. Already sorted, the clothes arrive by boat in the port of Sundsvall, on board containers. The only condition: in order to be recycled in the Renewcell factory, they must contain at least 95% cotton. “We are developing our process to be able to take up to 10% synthetic material, but that is the limit: beyond that, it is no longer profitable for our economic model”says Kristina Elg Christoffersson.
First step: the second-hand clothes are placed on three conveyor belts, at the end of which are grinders, which reduce them to confetti two centimeters in diameter. At the exit, the fleecy pile passes under a huge magnet, then under a blower: buttons, zippers and other ornaments are set aside. All that remains is a cotton-rich down, which will be chemically treated to produce a paste.
You have 75.97% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.