Why did we start the project Fabric to Fabric?

28,000 litres of water, 1 kg of chemicals, poisoned streams, high carbon oxide emissions. For what? Just to produce 5 to 6 cotton t-shirts! Polyester production isn’t any more sustainable – polyester and other synthetics are based on petroleum and are a part of our fossil dependency. Every year a quarter of all textiles are thrown in the garbage to be burned – incinerated for the energy to be reclaimed, but never to be used again.

But, imagine a different scenario. What if we could turn your old shirt into a new fibre for a pillowcase or a sheet? What obstacles do we face in changing a linear textile process to a circular one?

Our goals

We work across research, design and communication in cooperation with a number of stakeholders.

• What is our research ambition? When it comes to fabrics of 100% cotton or polyester, there are methods for recycling and the production of new raw materials. But, most fabrics are composed of mixed materials, up to 7-8 different fibre types, for which there is no method for separation and recycling. The methods currently being explored by researchers today are either chemical or mechanical. We aim to research both routes, and understand more about the hierarchy of reprocessing textiles.

Our project will focus on recycling work wear in the health sector. The clothes are mainly made of a mix of two materials – cotton and polyester.

• Traditionally, in the design process material selection comes late in the decision-making. We want to inspire designers to build on the recovery potential at an early stage. To ask themselves – “What’s next for the material I am designing?”

We are at the initial stages of implementing a tool we have developed, The Recycle Key – our main goal with this is to make it an effective tool in the design process of creating textiles for forward cycling.

• To communicate this method requires a plan for dissemination within a range of target groups in the textile industry, and with users and authorities.

We would like to contribute to research in practice – to make Fabric to Fabric a reality!

Who are our partners?

We work with a wide range of actors such as:

• Students/scientists/universities, e.g. Linköpings Universitet, Mid Sweden University, University of the Arts London, and others
• Designers/designer educators
• Pioneers in textile industry as Saiboo AB, Klättermusen and others
• Procurers in the public and private sector from Stockholm, Östersund and others
• Authorities as Kulturbryggan (The Culture Bridge), Vinnova and MISTRA Future Fashion. Mistra Future Fashion is a multidisciplinary research program funded by the Environmental Strategies Foundation Mistra. The aim is to enable a paradigm shift in the Swedish fashion industry that lead to the sustainable development of industry and society.

Do you want to know more?
Contact us!

Åsa Strandberg
Email: asa.strandberg@saiboo.se
Phone: +46 70-753 05 50

Jenny Persson
Email: jenny.persson22@gmail.com
Phone: +46 730-69 22 80

Karolina Nätterlund
Email: karolina.natterlund@regionjh.se
Phone: +46 70-22 99 782