Telavalue project explored diverse topics aimed at building value chains for more sustainable production, use and cycles of textiles

Telavalue project (Value chains for sustainable production, use and cycles of textiles) was a two and a half year Business Finland Co-Innovation project that officially ended in July 2024. The public research project, with a total budget of EUR 1.8 million, was coordinated by VTT together with LAB University of Applied Sciences and Turku University of Applied Sciences. The Telavalue consortium hosted in total 17 company partners of whom six had parallel company projects. In summary, the Telavalue project generated new sustainable material and process solutions, as well as business model expertise that will provide competitive advantage for the Finnish industry, leading to new and increased business in the international markets for Finnish companies.

Joining the ExpandFibre team to reflect on the ended project were Telavalue project coordinator Pirjo Heikkilä, Principal Scientist and Project Manager at VTT, in addition to company representatives from the Telavalue consortium Ulla Reiman, Manufacturing R&D Manager at Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions Oy, and Katariina Kemppainen, SVP, Group R&D at Metsä Spring.

Background to the Telavalue initiative

To start the discussion, Pirjo wanted to highlight the successful continuum of textile-focused initiatives that had resulted in the creation of the Telavalue project: “Telavalue is part of a long continuum of active research projects tackling challenges related to textiles, their use and recycling, going back to 2015, when the first TEKES/Business Finland and EU-funded initiatives were launched within the Telaketju network and ecosystem. Some of the company partners have been with us from the very start, whereas some have only joined for a specific project. Through this continuum we have been able to create a viable textile ecosystem of advanced research and business knowhow. Also, we were very happy to organise a joint final seminar event for Telavalue in the spring 2024 with the NewCotton EU project, that was coordinated by Infinited Fiber Company – an active member in past Telaketju initiatives. Building strong connections with active players in the field of textiles is increasingly important, which is why were happy to be part of such a great event hosted by Aalto University.”

Key outcomes & discussing the motivations for joining the project

Ulla proceeded to explain why Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions was particularly driven to join the Telavalue project as it was kicking off in 2022: “Most people likely know us from the Vileda brand, under which we supply a vast selection of cleaning solutions for consumers but in addition Vileda professional offers professional solutions to hospitals, general building/HoReCa and controlled environments. Our factory in Salo, Finland, has been active since the 1980s employing currently over 60 people. For us the important topics of environmental footprint and handprint have been already studied extensively, but within Telavalue project we were hoping to gain new insights specifically with recyclability-related topics. Thankfully we were able to pursue different prototypes during the project involving the use of production side streams for novel textile materials in addition to evaluating the recyclability of our used Vileda mops in collaboration with Rester. The next step for us is to validate these prototypes with our production facilities in Germany. The work revolving around the prototype cases has been extremely valuable for us, in addition to the built connections with the other consortium members.”

Katariina wanted to open up Metsä Group’s approach for the Telavalue project: “We did not have a parallel company project investigating a specific case, but we were happy to offer biobased textile fibres for the consortium partners to explore further. The yarns we supplied for the partners contained both wood-based Kuura® fibres and recycled polyester fibres.”

According to Katariina, the most important aspect of the project for a potential virgin wood fibre supplier, such as Metsä Group, was to understand better “the big picture” of the rapidly developing textile ecosystem: “Circular economy for textiles is a very complicated system, that is only shaping up in Finland. For a potential future wood-based textile fibre supplier, it’s elementary to understand the roles of different actors, the benefits of various key technologies and what are the main requirements to make the ecosystem truly circular. Also, for all textile fibre manufacturers it’s fundamentally important to understand how their own fibres perform in recycling and recovery processes. From our point of view, it’s important to be able to supply our sustainable textile fibre, Kuura®, for the textile value chain.”

”In general, it was important for us to get involved into the continuum of Telaketju initiatives, that have been actively running already for years and consequently learn insights on the Finnish textile ecosystem and its key players. The business surrounding textile fibres is truly global, whereas circular economy has a bigger impact locally. From R&D perspective, the proximity to RTOs, universities, universities of applied sciences and companies is a clear benefit for us at Metsä Group.”, Katariina summarised.

Pirjo continued highlighting further the positive aspects of the project: “For example, we at VTT made interesting experiments on the recyclability of man-made cellulose fibers with positive indicative results. This work requires more attention in the future, but just being able to trial new ideas and concepts was very important in order to learn more on the theme of recyclability.”

Collaboration was one of the key themes of Telavalue as explained by Pirjo: “The collaboration that emerged between Freudenberg and Rester, as detailed by Ulla, was a primary example of new connections that were made during the project outside the actual work plan. Finnish Textile & Fashion was also very active in bringing various Finnish textile actors together during the project. From my perspective one of the key aims of the project was to generate new knowledge to the project partners and the Finnish textile ecosystem at large.”

Although the work under the Telaketju umbrella extends back almost 10 years there has been development over the years between the initiatives, as Pirjo detailed: “I think with Telavalue in particular we were successful in better reaching out also outside Finland and into the European textile landscape. As the legislation revolving around textiles has evolved, consequently the requirements set out by the EU have developed for these materials. The focus of the research work has also evolved to include major topics such as responsibility and the many elements of sustainability.”

Ulla summarised the positive outcomes of the project: ”It’s hard to imagine a better mechanism for us, than the Telavalue project, for truly seeing the big picture of the Finnish textile ecosystem, as well as gathering crucial new insights on the circular economy aspects of the textile industry. Freudenberg Group is a major company, and Telavalue has given us a platform to attract a lot of attention on a corporate level inside the group. For example getting our work highlighted in our company magazine was a major milestone for us. Without Telavalue this positive impact would have never materialised.”

Next steps

International collaborations and publicly funded research initiatives play important roles when assessing the next steps for Telavalue and the vast array of topics that the project researched, as explained by Pirjo: “We have two VTT led EU projects, tExtended and PESCO-UP, in progress at the moment creating continuity for the work. Turku UAS is participating in the Baltic2Hand project funded by EU’s Interreg program. The Baltic countries play a key role in the sorting of textile materials, also those originating from the Nordic countries. Polyester is the prominent raw material for textiles, and we unfortunately do not have that much activity for polyester. We have run some small-scale pilots assessing the recyclability of polyester fibres, and we are planning also nationally funded initiatives for this topic in Finland. I see lot of potential in new emerging technologies for polyester recycling, and the chemical recycling of polyester is particularly interesting.”

Katariina also offered her analysis on the future of textiles at Metsä Group: “During ExpandFibre, we have learned a lot about the textile theme area. The received co-funding from Business Finland has been elementary in helping us to understand and further develop the processing of hemicellulose-containing paper-grade pulp into Kuura® textile fibre. We are advancing with a carefully planned step-wise approach starting from a pre-study phase eventually, hopefully, advancing to the pre-engineering phase. The future commercial-scale plant would be a major undertaking for Metsä Group, involving careful considerations for pulp mill integration, site selection, process optimisation, etc. We are closely collaborating on these topics with both Finnish and international partners.”

Pirjo wanted to further highlight the role of wood-based materials in the future textile landscape: ”Globally the need for textile fibres is continuously growing. We are unable to fulfil this growing demand by increasing the cultivation of cotton, as it would drastically compete with food production in addition to having potentially severely negative impacts on global biodiversity. I see forest-based raw materials having a crucial role here in the future, supplementing the role of cotton. Synthetics fibres, on the other hand, have other sustainability issues like fossil-based origin and microplastics release.”

Reflections on the future of the Finnish textile ecosystem

To close the discussion, the interviewees reflected in general on the developing Finnish textile ecosystem with Pirjo opening the topic: “Cellulose-based textile fibres and their development, in addition to their recycling technologies, have been our main strengths in Finland. We’re unfortunately still lacking many of the key industrial components required for the manufacturing of textile fabrics within our borders. Fortunately, our neighbours in the Baltic countries, for example, have a lot of knowhow and industrial expertise, which we have been exploring through strategic partnerships. Overall, I see partnerships throughout Europe forming the strong foundation for future development of the Finnish textile ecosystem. Also, I have noticed a welcomed shift in consumer attitudes where more emphasis is placed on quality instead of quantity, and the quality of textiles is something that we in Finland have specialised in and should continue to specialise in going forward. It’s important to note that countries throughout Europe have huge differences in their textiles knowhow and availability of skilled labour, which also has a different cost across Europe. That is why yarn and textile fabric manufacturing has been more dominant in Eastern and Southern Europe. To be honest, we’re lacking a lot of the fundamental skills in Finland to fulfil certain specific roles in the industry.”

Ulla continued: ”Although we have important partners such as Rester, we’re lacking the important infrastructure to keep the momentum truly going. As Pirjo mentioned we have partners in close-by countries, which helps. Surely there is a lot of work in the horizon for us with plenty of new partnerships to be formed. I’m also very excited to follow the emerging start-ups working within the textile industry.”

Katariina added: ”Indeed, we have many highly innovative players who are driven to take the Finnish textile industry to the next level. But the reality is that the future volumes of produced textile fibre do not match the needs of yarn manufacturers and consequently textile fabric producers in Finland. Luckily textile fibres are compact and lightweight and thus, feasible to transport even longer distances. In general, the forest industry is always on the lookout for the next added value forest-based product capable of filling the major gap generated by the reduced demand of paper.”  

On a more personal level, it’s clear that Telavalue has made a lasting impact on its coordinator as Pirjo confessed: ”I’ve been actively engaged with topics related to more circular textiles for the past 10 years, and to be honest, no other research topic has personally affected my consuming behaviour like sustainable and circular textiles, really pushing me to make more responsible choices in everyday life.”

To close, Katariina wanted to give a special mention of the thorough dissemination work that the Telaketju research continuum has carried out through their dedicated homepage (see link below) highlighting results of the different projects, detailing value chain maps and providing a multitude of other beneficial resources for professionals and the general public alike.

Photo credit: Telavalue project
For more information: https://telaketju.turkuamk.fi/