NordicBio - Circular Nordic Bio Nonwoven in MedTech Application

Healthcare is a major consumer of fossil-based disposables. According to Plastic Today, the estimated market value of plastic disposables in healthcare is valued at just over USD 202 billion and is forecast to grow to USD 273 billion by 2020. Other reports show that these healthcare products are growing at a rate of over 6.5% per year. Products based on nonwoven materials account for almost 10% of these figures and are the fastest growing material due to their broad properties.

Swedish-Finnish cooperation

NordicBio - Circular Nordic Bio Nonwoven in MedTech Application is a Vinnova-funded collaboration project between Sweden and Finland. There are a total of six project actors, from research institutes such as RISE (formerly Swerea IVF) to business actors in both Sweden and Finland. Wargön Innovation will lead the project which runs from fall 2018 to spring 2021.

New business models and materials

The aim is to investigate methods and processes for recycling textile fibers into bio-based disposable products in the form of nonwoven materials and business models linked to this. One part of finding working business models is to handle the sorting of the original textile fibers, which makes the project extra interesting as it links to two other projects within Wargön Innovation: Biorock - Sustainable solutions in healthcare and WargoTex Development.