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This report gives an overview of the market for alternative wool products with the perceived potential to be made using vacant wool. The work is based on a desktop study and interviews with manufacturers and distributors, focusing on products made of wool and their qualities. The report is the second deliverable from work package 2 of the WOOLUME p...
Citations
... To find a reasonable solution to the problem of utilization of the existing resources of local wool, production of thermal and acoustic insulating materials (Corscadden, Biggs, and Stiles 2014;Patnaik et al. 2015), geotextiles Broda, Mitka, and Gawłowski 2020;Marczak, Lejcuś, and Misiewicz 2020) and other technical textiles has been initiated (Allafi et al. 2020;Johnson et al. 2003). Wool has been also used in other, unconventional applications as concrete or soil reinforcement (Aymerich, Fenu, and Meloni 2012;Galán-Marín, Rivera-Gómez, and Petric-Gray 2010), oil absorbers (Radetic et al. 2008) and material for the production of hygienic products, flowerpots, surfboards and coffins (Sigaard et al. 2021). ...
Coarse wool obtained from mountain sheep has low economic value and is treated as a troublesome by-product of sheep farming. To find ways to utilize it, waste separated from the better-quality wool during sheep shearing was used as a fertilizer in winter wheat cultivation. During the preliminary tests, it was stated that unwashed wool does not contain excessive amounts of heavy metals and environmentally unfriendly contaminations and can be safely used as a fertilizer. Then, the raw wool was cut into shorter segments and mixed with the soil, and its influence on winter wheat growth during two seasons was examined. Simultaneously, the progress of wool biodegradation and the nitrogen content in the soil were analyzed. It was stated that, during vegetation, nitrogen compounds are slowly released into the ground, and the content of nitrogen in the soil is strictly correlated with the progress of wool biodegradation. Released nitrogen positively impacts wheat growth in various stages, which is manifested by higher tillering degree, more intense leaf color, higher stems and finally, greater yield. Wool added into the soil reveals its positive influence on wheat development up to two harvests. Mountain sheep wool can be successfully used as a nitrogen-rich, organic fertilizer in organic farming. This enables utilization of coarse wool, which is not suitable for textile processing, according to the zero-waste strategy.
Production and use of plastic products have drastically increased during the past decades and their environmental impacts are increasingly spotlighted. At the same time, coarse wool, a by-product of meat and dairy production, goes largely unexploited in the EU. This paper asks why more coarse wool is not used in consumer goods, such as acoustic and sound-absorbing products, garden products, and sanitary products. This is answered through a SWOT analysis of results from a desktop study and interviews with producers of these products made from wool, as well as policy documents relating to wool, waste, textiles, and plastic. Findings show that on a product level, the many inherent properties of wool create opportunities for product development and sustainability improvements and that using the coarser wool represents an opportunity for replacing plastics in many applications as well as for innovation. This is, however, dependent on local infrastructure and small-scale enterprises, but as such, it creates opportunities for local value chains, value creation, and safeguarding of local heritage. The shift to small-scale and local resource utilization requires systemic change on several levels: Here the findings show that policy can incentivize material usage transitions, but that these tools are little employed currently.
Wool of mountain sheep, treated nowadays as a waste or troublesome byproduct of sheep husbandry, was used for the production of sound-absorbing materials. Felts of two different thicknesses were produced from loose fibres. Additionally, two types of yarn, ring spun and core rug, were obtained. The yarns were used for the production of tufted fabric with cut and loop piles. During the examinations, basic parameters of the obtained materials were determined. Then, according to standard procedure with the use of impedance tube, the sound absorption coefficient was measured, and the noise reduction coefficient (NRC) was calculated. It was revealed that felt produced from coarse wool exhibits high porosity, and its sound absorbing capacity is strongly related to the felt thickness. For thicker felt the NRC achieved 0.4, which is comparable with the NRC of commercial ceiling tiles. It was shown that the crucial parameter influencing the sound absorption of the tufted fabrics was the pile height. For both types of yarns, when the height of the pile was increased from 12 to 16 mm, the NRC increased from 0.4 to 0.42. The manufactured materials made from local wool possess good absorption capacity, similar to commercial products usually made from more expensive wool types. The materials look nice and can be used for noise reduction as inner acoustic screens, panels, or carpets.
