Five Recommendations for Decision-Makers to Prevent Wool Waste

Sweden produces around 1,000 tonnes of wool every year. Yet only half of it is used. The rest is wasted, while approximately 1,700 tonnes of wool are imported. The problem is that it costs Swedish sheep farmers more to handle the wool than they are paid for it. Five political recommendations are now being presented that could make it economically viable to make use of Swedish wool.

Experience from The Swedish Wool Initiative – a collaboration project led by Axfoundation and Dalarna Science Park together with actors across the entire wool value chain – shows that the low utilisation of wool in Sweden is not due to poor wool quality or a lack of willingness among sheep farmers; quite the opposite. The challenge is instead that today’s system makes it difficult to make the numbers add up.

Wool is not just any material. It is naturally flame-resistant, temperature-regulating and biodegradable. It has strong potential for use in defence and healthcare as well as construction and textiles, for example as insulation in jackets and equipment, padding and textiles in furniture and interiors, building insulation, and as durable fabrics for workwear and outerwear. At the same time, much of the wool in products within these areas is currently imported. Strengthening the Swedish wool value chain is therefore not only about rural development. It is about preparedness, resilience and reduced dependence on imports.

It’s a persistent myth that Swedish wool would be of poor quality – it’s really about using the right wool for the right product, says Johan Sidenmark, Project Manager within Future Materials at Axfoundation.

But for wool’s potential to become reality, collection and handling from farm to industry must work economically. Experience from The Swedish Wool Initiative shows that the payment for wool to the sheep farmer today often does not even cover the cost of shearing, nor the work required after shearing, such as sorting, storage and transport.

The support that exists, Fårpengen (called The Sheepmoney), is an animal welfare support scheme that does not compensate for the steps needed to bring wool into an industrial value chain. The result is that a large share of the wool – up to half – never reaches actors who can grade, collect and process it.

– Today, it costs more to take care of the wool than you get paid for it. Then it becomes rational to let it go to waste. That’s where politics needs to step in, says Johan Sidenmark, Axfoundation.

Project partners from The Swedish Wool Initiative; Axfoundation, Arena Svensk Ull and Dalarna Science Park, now present five concrete political recommendations to strengthen the Swedish wool value chain. The recommendations form a comprehensive package intended to make Swedish wool profitable to use by strengthening the entire value chain. This includes a wool-handling support scheme for sheep farmers, investments and innovation to build the necessary infrastructure, clear demand signals through public procurement, and an extended producer responsibility that steers the market towards circular and bio-based materials.

The recommendations come at a time when several of the practical barriers that previously held Swedish wool back have been addressed. Through The Swedish Wool Initiative, a Swedish Wool Standard was developed and implemented, among other things. The standard is a shared classification system that makes it easier to quality-assure wool and trade with clearer specifications. Today there is Swedish Wool Arena, a collaboration platform that brings together actors across the value chain and works to increase the use of Swedish wool. There is already wool processing on Gotland via Ullkontoret, and through the new initiative Woolution, industrial capacity is also being built together with Holma Helsinglands and Swedish Texile for large-scale collection, washing and processing, with a hub in Sörforsa, Hälsingland.

What is missing are clear political decisions to build industry, strengthen rural areas and reduce Sweden’s dependence on imports.

– Johan Sidenmark, Project Manager for Future Materials at Axfoundation

Sweden now has both clear EU support and favourable national, practical conditions to steer policy towards industrial use of Swedish wool. The EU’s textile strategy aims to make clothing and textiles more sustainable and more circular, and the bioeconomy strategy is about replacing fossil-based materials with renewable ones – where wool is highlighted as an important resource.

Experience from other countries also shows that it is possible to build a strong wool sector when the state contributes clear frameworks. In countries such as New Zealand and Norway, where over 90 percent of the wool is collected, the market has been complemented with policy instruments: standardisation, procurement targets and targeted support.

– Sweden has never had such good conditions as now to take care of this valuable, domestic and bio-based raw material. A shared standard, broad collaboration and key parts of the infrastructure are already in place. What is missing are clear political decisions to build industry, strengthen rural areas and reduce Sweden’s dependence on imports, says Johan Sidenmark, Axfoundation.