Lindström and Rester invest in promoting the circular economy of the entire textile industry with personnel changes
At the end of August 2022, Anna-Kaisa Huttunen, the member of the Group management team responsible for the Lindström Group’s Ecosystems and Sustainability, will move on to the position of Director of Partnership in Lindström’s associate company Rester. From September 2022, Kati Pallasaho, Lindström Group’s SVP Strategy, and member of the Group management team, will take over responsibility for the Group’s sustainability management.
At Rester, Huttunen’s mission will continue to be to accelerate the circular economy of textiles and the use of recycled fibers, which is the core of Rester Oy’s strategy. She is convinced that ambitious climate targets, circular business models and economic growth are one and the same.
“Although there is already a lot of talk these days about new textile fiber innovations at the circular economy of textiles and the recycling of textile fibers, in real life we are still in the early stages of the industry’s global development. About 1% of textile waste is recycled back into clothes and, for example, in 2020, only about 0.5% of textile fibers produced globally were fibers recycled from textile waste,” Huttunen says and continues:
“The clothing and textile industry must make significant changes by 2030 for the industry to keep up with 1.5 degrees of global warming. Reducing the use of virgin textile fibers and replacing them with recycled fibers is one of the methods identified in the EU’s textile strategy. Succeeding in that requires a lot of product development and a new kind of joint innovation between different actors. The wheels of the circular economy will only start turning when the operators who use textile fibers are made to demand recycled fibers.”
The cooperation between Lindström and Rester began in 2021, when the companies agreed on the processing of Lindström’s textile waste in Finland and in the Baltics for industrial reuse. In March 2022, Lindström also became Rester’s second largest owner.
“Lindström’s textile services help customers reduce the environmental burden caused by company textiles. Under Anna-Kaisa’s leadership, we have developed our services, significantly increased the recycling rate of our textile waste with the goal of reaching 100 percent in 2025 and set ourselves the goal of carbon neutrality by 2035,” states Lindström’s Group President & CEO Juha Laurio. “The close pioneering work with Rester completes our circular economy service and supports the product development of the closed loop solution of textiles, where the textile at the end of its life is recycled into new fiber back into fabric production. The development of resource-wise materials promotes the entire industry.”
Rester’s CEO Outi Luukko emphasizes that both Lindström and Rester are pioneers in their fields, whose cooperation benefits the entire industry, including external actors, end users and even consumers.
“Since not all textile waste is suitable as recycled raw material for the production of workwear fabrics, completely new industrial applications must also be found for recycled fibers and operators who have not previously used textile fibers in their production interested in innovation that crosses the boundaries of industries. To our delight, we have already identified applications where recycled fiber works even better than virgin raw materials,” says Luukko. “For us, recruitment to the growing team requires a vision and understanding of the possibilities of the textile circular economy. Anna-Kaisa’s very broad, versatile and international expertise in the textile and clothing industry perfectly complements the expertise of the Rester team.”
For further information, please, contact:
Juha Laurio, President & CEO, Lindström Group, tel. +358 40 5016299, juha.laurio@lindstromgroup.com
Anna-Kaisa Huttunen, Director of Partnerships, Rester oy, tel. +358 40 738 1015, anna-kaisa.huttunen@rester.fi (as of September 1st, 2022)
Outi Luukko, CEO, Rester Oy, tel. +358 400 406083, outi.luukko@rester.fi
Lindström
Lindström is a family-owned textile service company based on a circular economy. With 4,700 dedicated employees, we provide responsible and easy-to-use textile services to our customers in Europe and Asia. We offer our customers safe and hygienic solutions to ensure the best possible customer experience and at the same time help them to act more responsibly. In 2021, the Lindström Group’s turnover was EUR 432.5 million.www.old.lindstromgroup.com
Rester Oy
Rester is a leading global forerunner in building textile recovery value chains. Located in Southwest Finland, the company offers textile recycling solutions that can be used to process end-of-life textiles and by-products of manufacturing into recycled fibers and quality raw materials. During the process, the textiles are opened mechanically back into fibers. Rester recovered fiber can be used by a great diversity of sectors to replace virgin raw material. Our customer base consists of businesses that supply us with end-of-life textiles that they no longer need and businesses that use recycled Rester fiber in their production or for their products. Founded in 2019, Rester began its fiber opening operations in November 2021. Rester’s principal owner is Touchpoint Oy, a manufacturer of ecological workwear. www.rester.fi