#Recycling / Circular Economy

2023-05-25

Infinited Fiber Company and SOEX sign agreement on textile waste feedstock for Infinited Fiber´s Flagship factory

Infinited Fiber Company´s work to build the first commercial-scale Infinna™ fiber factory progresses steadily. Since the announcement of the planned Flagship factory in 2021, the company has been building a supplier network for textile waste feedstock, partnering with forerunning textile sorters across Europe. In March, Infinited Fiber signed a three-year agreement with SOEX, a leading German textile sorting and recycling group.

One of Infinited Fiber´s key suppliers and a major player in the recycling market, SOEX is well positioned to provide the Flagship factory with an annual supply of up to 5000 tons of post-consumer textile waste. Infinited Fiber´s patented technology turns cotton-rich textile waste into high-quality, circular textile fiber Infinna™ for world´s leading apparel brands.

SOEX collects post-consumer textile waste mainly from Germany through municipal and commercial street collection, as well as the I:CO Take-Back System that enables fashion houses and retailers collect pre-loved clothing back from their customers in their stores or online. For used textiles unfit to for second hand sale, SOEX has a groundbreaking, fully automated sorting for recycling set-up, where artificial intelligence recognizes individual garments and sorts them by materials or colors.

“We are not only building a factory, but an ecosystem, and SOEX and its team matches our passion for advancing circularity in the textile industry through cutting-edge technology. This contract with SOEX is another great advancement in building the partner infrastructure for our flagship factory. This collaboration will also bring our brand customers new opportunities to loop textile waste from their supply chains into Infinna™´s raw material“, says Jari Ekblad, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Infinited Fiber Company.

“SOEX is a promoter of secondary raw material value streams and sustainability solutions. Together with Infinited Fiber we share the same vision and values for circular infrastructure for textile industry”, says Walter J. Thomsen, CEO at SOEX.

Infinited Fiber Company transforms textile waste otherwise destined to landfills or inceneration into a versatile, premium textile fiber called Infinna™, which looks and feels like cotton. The new factory, at the site of a discontinued paper mill in Kemi, Finland, will process approximately 37 000 tons of textile waste to produce 30,000 metric tons of Infinna™ annually – equivalent to the fiber needed for about 100 million T-shirts. Most of the future factory’s production capacity has already been sold out for several years.

Infinited Fiber Company appoints new chair and board members to drive next growth phase

Infinited Fiber Company has announced key changes to its Board of Directors following its Annual General Meeting on June 30, 2025. The new appointments are designed to support the company’s strategic focus on scaling its proprietary Infinna™ technology, expanding partnerships across the textile value chain, and preparing for industrial-level investment.

Infinited Fiber Company enters the next strategic phase under new leadership

Infinited Fiber Company announces that Petri Alava, co-founder and CEO since the company’s founding in 2016, will step down from his role on May 31, 2025. Chief Operating Officer Sahil Kaushik will serve as acting CEO from June 1, 2025. Petri Alava will continue supporting the company as Senior Advisor through the end of November. The Board of Directors has initiated the search for a permanent successor.

20 Start-Ups selected for CEMATEX Start-Up Grant at ITMA 2027

CEMATEX has selected 20 emerging start-ups from nine countries to receive the CEMATEX Start-Up Grant and showcase their innovations at Start-Up Valley during ITMA 2027 in Hanover. Their participation will be fully funded by CEMATEX, giving promising early-stage companies access to the world’s leading textile and garment technology platform.

Moving Advanced Recycling from Innovation to Implementation

The Advanced Recycling Conference 2026 explores technologies, markets, financing and scale-up of innovative recycling solutions for waste streams including mixed plastic waste, textiles and PVC. Europe’s chemical and materials sector faces growing pressure to close carbon loops, strengthen raw-material safety and resilience and meet increasingly ambitious EU recycling targets. Against this backdrop, the Advanced Recycling Conference (ARC) will bring together industry leaders, technology providers, researchers, innovators and policy-makers on 17–18 November 2026 in Cologne, Germany.

New Cotton Review examines competitiveness, market risk, and opportunities

From moving record volumes of Brazilian cotton to market, to managing price volatility, unlocking Ethiopia’s production potential, and strengthening African textile trade, the latest edition of Cotton: Review of the World Situation examines some of the most consequential opportunities and challenges facing the global cotton industry.

Long John puts KARL MAYER's RDJ 7/3 into operation and strengthens its position as a market leader

KARL MAYER has just unveiled its new RDJ 7/3 Jacquard Double Needle Bar Raschel Machine in the international trade press, and the innovation is already causing a stir in the market: The Long John Group, a leading manufacturer of performance footwear fabrics and a long-standing partner of renowned brands, was the first customer to invest in the new machine and celebrated its official launch at its Indonesian plant on August 20.

An eco-friendly alternative to fluorocarbon treatments

Protective and outdoor clothing derives its durable water-, dirt- and oil- repellent properties from the application of fluorinated polymers or per- and polyfluorinated low-molecular- weight chemicals (PFCs). The beneficial properties thus achieved on textiles are offset by environmental and human health risks. For manufacturers of sports, medical, protective and automotive textiles, researchers at the Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. and the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research have developed liquid-applied dispersions and solutions to functionalise textiles without the use of fluorine.