The aim is not to treat recycled wool as a “second choice”, but to engineer it so that it performs on the level of virgin wool:
softness, breathability, elasticity, natural temperature regulation, and resistance to odours, creasing, UV and flame. This material is tested against the same standards normally applied to virgin wool fabrics to guarantee durability and long wear.
From Waste to Worth: Wool with 99% Less Impact
What makes this fibre structurally different is the logic behind it. Instead of starting from new raw material, we start from what already exists. Wool offcuts, unsold stock and end-of-life garments are selected by composition and shade, opened back into fibre using mechanical processes, blended, spun again and woven into new textiles. In practical terms, this keeps wool in circulation rather than treating it as waste, and creates a closed industrial loop around a natural fibre that is already known for its longevity.
This approach has a measurable environmental effect. Independent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies comparing recycled wool of this type with generic virgin wool show drastically lower impacts: around 99.2% less impact on climate change, 99.9% less water use, and 93.3% less total energy consumption. These figures come from LCAs carried out according to international ISO standards (UNI EN ISO 14040 / 14044 / 14025) and reviewed within the scientific community, then used to obtain Environmental Product Declarations (EPD®) for both yarns and fabrics.
Those same studies also mapped the supply chain step by step, comparing recycled wool and virgin wool from raw fibre to finished yarn. One of the main findings is that most of the environmental load of virgin wool is generated in farming (emissions from sheep and land use), whereas the recycled fibre avoids that phase entirely. Even when the model assumes the “worst case” for recycled wool – for example, starting from post-consumer garments that require more processing – its carbon footprint remains dramatically lower than that of virgin wool in its “best case”.
Sustainability Is Local
For Alfa-fi this isn’t theory, it’s geography. Production sits inside the Prato textile district in Tuscany, where spinning, weaving, finishing and quality control are handled by specialist partners often located within roughly 10 miles of one another. That proximity means we can trace each batch, intervene quickly, and guarantee repeatability of handfeel and colour while keeping skills and value in the district. It also means fewer unnecessary transports, tighter control of water and chemistry, and higher accountability at every stage.
Colour is not an afterthought. Instead of relying on conventional dye baths, shades are often created by blending pre-sorted fibres in different tones until the exact colour is reached and can be reproduced at scale. This “colour by fibre selection” method allows access to a very wide palette without introducing new dyestuffs, cutting down on chemical auxiliaries, water consumption and energy linked to dyeing. In other words: colour is built into the fibre itself.
Another point that matters for us is end of life. Wool is a protein fibre, and unlike synthetics it is capable of biodegrading under the right conditions. Recent studies carried out with Italian research institutes and marine biology labs on recycled wool fibres of this kind show two things: the fibre does break down in marine environments over time, and the process does not generate significant ecotoxicological effects in the species tested. The behaviour is similar to natural wool rather than to synthetic microfibres, which tend to persist.
