Circular material from leather waste

Innovative yarn producer Spinnova is adding leather to the list of natural raw materials it can work with. KT Trading is lending its weight and its waste to the idea. Two major footwear brands, adidas and Ecco, are waiting in the wings.

Wet blue, crust and split supplier KT Trading has joined forces with Finnish bio-materials manufacturer Spinnova to produce what the two companies are calling “a new category of sustainable and circular textiles”. Their intention is to use waste from the tanning process as a raw material for a Spinnova yarn that can then be woven or knitted into material for shoe uppers and other applications. They intend to begin pilot-scale production of the new yarn, which they have called Respin, before the end of 2021.

Spinnova saw the light of day in 2014 as a spin-off from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and has worked since then to produce versatile, recyclable yarns from, mainly, paper-grade wood pulp. Its technique is based on fibre-suspension flows, mechanically pulping the fibres and controlling the flow in such a way as to form a yarn.

After going through a drying process, the yarn is ready for spinning and textile producers have already begun using the spun yarn to produce woven and knitted fabrics. Early adopters of these materials include fashion brands H&M and Bestseller and outdoor clothing brand…