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Making wool recyclable


Wool is a classic material and it is impossible to imagine fashion without it in winter. However, what many do not know: The extraction is often associated with great suffering and injuries for the animals. The Berlin brand RAFFAUF has therefore rethought natural fibers and developed a winter collection made from recycled wool.

Recycled materials in the textile industry are often obtained from resources outside the industry, for example plastic bottles are converted into recycled polyester fabrics. But how is a natural fiber like wool recycled? The material is based on a waste product from the fashion industry: old clothes. Large quantities of old woolen clothing are collected and sorted by color. The old material is washed and cut into tiny fibers from which a completely new fabric is woven. The recycled wool fabric is not dyed: the original material determines the color of the fabric.

One of the challenges in production is the low availability of pure wool clothing on the market. “We prefer to use pure materials because they can usually be recycled better than mixed fibers. But there is simply not enough worn clothing that consists of 100 percent wool to produce pure recycled wool, ”explains designer Caroline Raffauf. This is because the manufacturing process requires at least 2.000 kilograms of waste material for each color.

Since wool is often mixed with synthetic fibers, these can also be found in old clothing. In the recycling process, however, wool and synthetic fibers cannot be separated from one another. Instead, the existing mix of materials is completely recycled. The result is a recycled fiber in which wool meets a variable proportion of different synthetic fibers.

“We are particularly proud of the recyclability of our new material. The fabric is not only recycled, it can also be recycled again and again, ”says Raffauf. When you return the item, the label recycles the fibers of the clothing you have worn and lets them flow into future collections. 

Photo: David Kavaler / RAFFAUF

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Written by RAFFLE

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