A New Life for Recycled Wool

By Diana Budds

For over a century, textile mills in Prato have been recycling wool. The rest of the world is finally catching on to its merits.

The Bisenzio river snakes through the heart of Prato, a city in Italy about 15 miles northwest of Florence. With its old stone bridges, small waterfalls, and verdant bankside trails it’s a highly scenic landscape. But it’s also a workhorse: Because of the river, a textile industry has thrived in Prato since the Middle Ages—wool especially. The river has sustained flocks of sheep, powered mills, and, since the 19th century, has helped the region develop a distinctive method of recycling wool. Over time, the city became so famous for this innovation that “Prato wool” has become known worldwide to signify the regenerated wool made there.

As conversations about environmental conservation foreground the importance of reusing materials, Prato wool reminds us that sometimes the most sustainable production techniques are among the oldest. Fabrics made from this recycled wool are prized by designers who are seeking durable, renewable materials made from natural fibers.

Prato is home to the largest industrial recycling district in Europe. Many of the factories have been family owned and run for generations and comprise a fascinating ecosystem dedicated to wool regeneration. While some small businesses only focus on one step, a few of larger factories handle the end-to-end process. One of them is Comistra, which opened in 1920, and can recycle 25 tons of wool per day.

Comistra’s factory floor is an explosion of colorful fabrics. The company receives bales of pre- and post-industrial materials—mostly garments but also other items made from wool (in the past this included tennis balls). Workers sort through them by hand, first organizing them by color, since this affects how they strip the dyes. Then they sort by textile composition. They know what a material is made from just by feel and are looking for high-quality wool that is suitable to be recycled.

Once the materials are sorted, they travel through an assembly line. They’re shredded and washed using a technique that combines both a wool recycling process developed by the British inventor Benjamin Law in 1813 and a cotton recycling method similar to papermaking, which has been used since ancient times. The combination of these techniques is Prato’s innovation (no one knows the first person in the city to marry the two). It results in longer fibers than most wool recycling methods achieve.

After the fibers are washed, they’re dried then dyed. After the precise color is reached, the cotton-candy-like fibers are carded (essentially brushing the fibers to straighten them) and then spun into yarns that are ready to be woven into fabric.

Because of this specialized process, “experts can’t tell if the fabric was made from new or recycled wool,” says Fabrizio Tesi, the CEO of Comistra.

Despite their quality, these materials weren’t always celebrated. As circularity continues to become more important for the design industry as a whole, materials like the recycled wool Comistra makes are finding new relevance—and are becoming a source of pride for the region. “When I was a child, Prato was the area you went to to find cheap wool,” Tesi says. “Our job wasn’t considered something cool, as it is now. So it was emotionally very difficult. It’s an inflection and it’s very motivating.”

For decades, Comistra primarily supplied the garment industry. Now, it’s gaining new customers in the interiors and home space who are interested in sustainability and discovering materials that can better express their creativity.

Designtex is one such company. Textiles made from natural fibers have been part of our product range since the brand was founded in the 1960s. To better help interior designers find materials that are beautiful, high performing, and renewable we have been working with textile mills in Prato to develop a line of fabrics that offer a remarkably wide range of colors (190 in all) and a soft, luxurious feel. These fabrics, which come in four different weave patterns, are durable without any added finishes; naturally fire-resistant; can be used in a variety of environments, from workplace to hospitality and residential; and are thermoregulating and biodegradable.

Prato’s textiles industry is hoping that the increased interest in regenerated materials might help keep the long tradition of Prato wool alive. In the 1980s, there were over 500 spinning mills but due to lower labor costs overseas, that number has dropped. Today, there are just 60 that produce both virgin and recycled yarns. The numbers are stable now, but there’s room to grow.

Tesi notes that more and more students—particularly from Australia, which has a large wool industry—are coming to Prato to learn about the textiles it makes and the exciting world of sustainable natural fibers. “Every day, it’s like a new story,” he says. “You face a new creative challenge you’ve never seen before. Wool is not like iron; we’re dealing with something that is alive.”