In September, the environmental permit process began and it is now decided that Renewcell chooses to establish their new textile recycling plant at SCA Ortviken’s industrial area in Sundsvall. Renewcell estimates that this establishment will create around one hundred new full-time jobs in a plant that, at full production, will recycle 60,000 tons of textiles a year. This corresponds to about half of Sweden’s annual consumption of textiles.
“We are incredibly proud to soon put the shovel to the ground for our next plant. Increasing our capacity is a must to be able to meet the fashion industry’s great demand for our uniquely recycled material, says Patrik Lundström, the CEO of Renewcell.”
Renewcell is currently operating a smaller industrial scale plant in Kristinehamn where the company has since 2016, developed and optimized its world-unique, patented recycling process. The lessons learned from Kristinehamn will now form the basis for a new and larger facility that will operate in a building on Ortviken’s industrial site where SCA currently produces paper.
“Sundsvall and Ortviken are an ideal place for us to establish our new plant. Since our recycling process is based on traditional pulp technology, almost all the infrastructure we need is already in place. The most important thing, however, is that there is a lot of great expertise in the area. I look forward to welcoming hundreds of new colleagues to Renewcell in the coming years, says Patrik Lundström.”
Renewcell began the evaluation of Ortviken during this spring and in September, consultations were started prior to the environmental permit application. In October, Ortviken will begin preparations for Renewcell and the first sod for necessary renovations is planned to start after the turn of the year. The first tons of recycled textile pulp under the brand name Circulose® produced at Ortviken are planned to be shipped to customers during the first half of 2022.
“Thanks to our experience from Kristinehamn and considering that so much is already in place, we can keep an ambitious timeline. The financing is ongoing and provided that the permit process runs smoothly, we will soon be able to recycle hundreds of millions of garments in Sundsvall every year. We will then start to make a real difference in an industry with a large and growing environmental and climate impact.”