Joint venture will justify Ecco’s interest in leather waste
The launch on May 20 of Respin, a joint venture between bio-yarn producer Spinnova and wet blue and crust manufacturer KT Trading, comes three years after the Applied Research division of Ecco first took an interest in what Spinnova was doing.
KT Trading, a long-term supplier of semi-finished hides to Ecco Leather, has said Respin will use wet blue shavings from European tanneries, including Ecco Leather’s facility at Dongen in the Netherlands, in the pilot phase of production.
It expects pilot production to begin before the end of this year. A pilot plant is under construction at the moment at Spinnova’s headquarters in Finland.
In time, the leather manufacturer says any type of material in which collagen fibre is present will be suitable for Respin to use. Fibres that Respin produces from the leather waste will make yarns that can, in turn, be made into woven or knitted fabric.
Chief executive of KT Trading, Kristian Geert Jensen, has said the woven and knitted fabrics resulting from Respin yarns will be suitable for use in footwear uppers, which further justifies Ecco’s interest in the project, but also in automotive interiors, bags, furniture and other applications.
He told World Leather that the materials deriving from leather waste will provide a good alternative, not to leather, but to the synthetic substitutes that many brands use instead of leather.
“Leather is an amazing high-quality material with unique properties,” Mr Geert Jensen said. “With this new textile, we have taken yet another step towards completing the circular economy for leather. We have made a truly unique breakthrough.” He pointed out that, in spite of extensive effort, tanners have so far been unable to find any “real sustainable solution for this type of waste”.
For his part, Spinnova chief executive and co-founder, Janne Poranen, said his company was delighted “to close the leather loop” with Ecco and KT Trading as partners.
