Will wood-based garments be defined as eco-friendly? Metsä Spring has a request to EU
Metsä Group recently announced it will continue to study the possibility of industrial production of wood-based textile fibre. Tens of millions of euros have already been invested in the project.
Metsä Group considers that the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation under preparation in the EU should encourage the production of textile fibre from renewable raw materials.
’The EU decision-makers should recognize that ecological products can also be made from renewable raw materials, instead of just from recycled material, says Niklas von Weymarn, CEO of Metsä Spring, which produces the wood-based Kuura textile fibre, speaking to forest.fi.
Metsä Spring is part of Metsä Group.
Ecodesign regulation came into force in July 2024. Now EU is creating ecodesign criteria and requirements for product groups, for example textiles.
Under the strategy, the EU Parliament has expressed a wish, that all textiles sold within the EU would have to be largely made of recycled fibre by 2030. New requirements on products sold within the EU are not expected to come into effect until 2027.
Pre-engineering of Kuura textile fibre mill under way
The EU’s environmental legislation is of interest to Metsä Spring. The company announced in late February that it is initiating the pre-engineering of the first commercial textile fibre mill using softwood pulp. The pulp for the fibre is made of spruce and pine sourced from responsibly managed forests.
’Our greatest concern regarding the EU is the emphasis shown on recycled raw material, which would mean that renewable raw material from the forest would not be included in the set of criteria. We want to make sure that they also include this aspect,’ von Weymarn says.
Von Weymarn points out that at the moment, only one hundredth, or one percent, of used garments are recycled to make new ones.
’Defining the use of recycled material as the only ecological option is not realistic. It would mean that almost no garments could earn plus points (from good ecology),’ von Weymarn says.
The Kuura fibre is suitable for garments and technical textiles and is produced without fossil fuels.
Polyester is a source of microplastics
According to Metsä Spring, the climate-warming effect of Kuura is significantly smaller than that of cotton, for example. Von Weymarn also stresses that the Kuura fibre decays in the environment.
’When textiles made of polyester are washed and dried, especially if you do this mechanically, they shed microplastics, some of which end up in the environment and even in the human body. They decay very, very slowly. If micro particles from the Kuura fibre end up in the environment, they are completely disintegrated by natural processes.’
When textiles made of polyester are washed and dried, especially if you do this mechanically, they shed microplastics, some of which end up in the environment and even in the human body. They decay very, very slowly. If micro particles from the Kuura fibre end up in the environment, they are completely disintegrated by natural processes.
According to the European Parliament, the washing of synthetic materials has by now caused the accumulation of over 14 million tonnes of microplastics in the oceans.
In themselves, von Weymarn considers the EU’s new environmental requirements to be acceptable with regard to Kuura, as long as the environmental criteria are assessed in a standardized manner.
’In that case we’ll do fine,’ von Weymarn says.
EUR 50 million invested in Kuura to date
The development of a wood-based textile fibre at Metsä Group began several years ago. The first pilot mill started in Äänekoski, central Finland, in 2020, and the sum invested in the project so far is EUR 50 million. The pre-engineering is expected to be complete by the summer of 2026, and the mill could be started in 2029 at the earliest. The mill would be located in either Äänekoski or Kemi, northern Finland.
The company plans to sell its production on the globally expanding textile fibre market, two thirds of which are currently taken up by oil-based fibres. If the business proves profitable, it will be expanded in the future, von Weymarn assures.
The negative environmental impact of the textile industry needs to be curbed. Every second, enough garments to fill an articulated lorry are rejected or discarded in the world.
The fashion industry is responsible for 8–10 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. This is more than the emissions from international air traffic and marine freight transport combined.
In addition to Metsä Spring, cellulose-based textile fibres are developed by companies like Spinnova, a listed Finnish company.
Spinnova promises to drop the carbon dioxide emissions by about three quarters (74 percent) and to cut down the use of water almost completely (98 percent), compared to conventional textile industry processes.
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