Upcycling fashion to furniture — really?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, around 500,000 tonnes of leather and textiles was sent to landfill in 2009–10. This means every Australian throws away approximately 23 kg of clothes each year. The global non-profit Textile Exchange estimates that 95% of the textiles we use could probably be recycled, but only 25% actually are. Much of the remainder is incinerated or sent to landfill.

Danish company Really has engineered a solution to upcycle some of this end-of-life textile waste into a valuable resource. Its debut product range of high-density Solid Textile Board, launched in April, is set to challenge the architecture and design sector into rethinking its use of resources for furniture and interior design.

In conventional recycling processes, materials degrade as they are re-used; in the circular economy, the aim is to upcycle so that materials can be endlessly remade while retaining their full value. Really takes a readily available waste stream — in this case end-of-life textiles from the fashion and textile industries, laundries, households as well as Kvadrat’s selvedge waste (Kvadrat now owns 52% of Really) — and redefines its use, transforming it into a new raw material and inviting designers to turn it into something interesting.

The patented production process took Really several years to develop. The non-woven process includes, among other things, milling used textiles into small fibres and mixing them with a special binder that does not degenerate through re-use. The manufacturing does not involve the use of dyes, water or toxic chemicals and generates only recyclable waste. The material can eventually be re-granulated and formed into new material iterations.

Photo credit: Joel Tettamanti.

The composition of the Solid Textile Board reflects the availability of textile waste streams. It can be an alternative to a variety of existing materials depending on the application. In designing the board material, the company focused on making a composite that, through its properties, can replace or even bring additions to existing material offerings and thereby be an honest alternative. Its mechanical properties allow it to be used as a substitute for wood and composites in furniture and architecture. Its tactility and unique aesthetics make it a decorative alternative to a variety of materials such as stone, wood, plasterboard and masonry.

Solid Textile Board is made up of end-of-life cotton and wool, as these textiles are typically downcycled in existing recycling processes. The core of the board is made of end-of-life white cotton sourced from industrial laundries.