iinouiio
Textile recycling and wool circularity
iinouiio is our circular textile recycling arm, which we welcomed into Camira Group in 2022.
“It is never over until it is over”
The brainchild of Dr John Parkinson, iinouiio is an acronym for “It is never over until it is over” which not only conveys John’s undying passion for textile recycling, but also sums up the sense of continuity achieved through recycling and reinvention.
The company undertakes high value recycling of both wool and cashmere, serving the wider UK textile industry, as well as providing the in-house wool recycling expertise for our own redundant yarn and fabric stocks and wool waste streams. It’s a key strand of creating a more sustainable future in natural fibers so that they can be re-processed for re-use and future enjoyment.
Re-inventing wool shoddy manufacturing
Wool recycling began around two hundred years ago in West Yorkshire when Benjamin Parr discovered how to shred old clothes (shoddy) and woven textiles (mungo) into recycled fibers, giving rise to an entire recycling industry with rag merchants on every street corner.
Fast forward to the 1970s and John Parkinson’s late father Colin was setting up his own wool shoddy recycling firm, to be joined by his son in 1977, who in turn set up his own business Evergreen in 1990. Sadly, the advent of fast throw-away fashion and the popularity of man-made synthetics led to the rapid decline of wool recycling and that business closed in 1995 meaning John had to re-train and develop an alternative career.
But his passion for wool and textile recycling remained undiminished and he set up iinouiio in 2019, encouraged by his daughter to find a solution to the burgeoning textile waste problem. When he was successful in a bid to secure UK government funding to install a brand new wool recycling line, he needed to find a home for it and that home became Camira.
Circularity re-imagined
So the art of textile recycling has literally come full circle. From its humble beginnings during the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, wool circularity has been re-imagined for the sustainable age through iinouiio.
This provides a turnkey solution, through intellectual property and advanced mechanical recycling technology, to transform premium natural yarns and woven fabric back to their raw fibre state for blending, carding and spinning into new yarn.
iinouiio works with textile manufacturers and retailers in both fashion and furniture to address the problem of textile waste, which is a valuable resource limited only by form and thinking.
