Greenful, together with several partners, plans to establish three separate factories in a single building in Sillamäe.

One factory would sort textiles, extracting cotton and sending low-cotton-content textiles for shredding. A second facility would produce construction boards from the shredded low-cotton-content textiles. The third company would manufacture sandwich-style construction panels from these boards.

Greenful founder Toomas Allikas stated that he has spent five years developing the technology needed for all three processes. According to him, €3.5 million in funding from private investors in Estonia and Finland has already been used for development.

"Our first investors included the family of Puustelli founder with Jussi Aine, Kodumaja Group with Lembit Lump, Tiksoja Puidugrupp with Hanno Murrand and Idrek Küttis from Scanweld. We have investors with quite impressive backgrounds," Allikas said.

80 percent of the money to be borrowed from banks

The construction of the factory in Sillamäe is expected to cost approximately €100 million. EIS has committed to covering €39 million of this amount. However, the funds from EIS will only be disbursed once expenses have been incurred and approved.

Following EIS' funding decision, Allikas is now moving forward with assembling the financial backing for the project.

Around 80 percent of the required funding is planned to come from bank loans. "The EIS decision has been made and negotiations with the banks are ongoing. It could take a few months to finalize everything," Allikas said.

The remaining equity capital, approximately €20 million, will be raised with the help of Heiti Hääl, the majority owner of Alexela Group.

According to Allikas, other investors are also expected to contribute to the project, but the specifics are still being determined. "The funding aspect is largely in Heiti's hands and it's still a bit early to discuss the details," Allikas noted.

Allikas added that agreements are already in place with suppliers of raw materials, equipment providers and buyers of the final products. The factory is planned to be built in the Sillamäe port area this year, with the first boards expected to be ready by the end of next year.

Textile sorting to be automated

The main challenge in recycling textile waste is ensuring consistent material composition. Allikas explains that from the beginning, his goal was to produce boards where the cotton content would not be a critical factor.

He plans to use a composition of 50 percent low-cotton-content textile waste, 30 percent plastic waste and the remainder from other materials. In the final product, the cotton fiber content can vary between 5 and 10 percent.

Greenful intends to sort high-cotton-content waste using a specialized machine. "A robot handles it. This production line is so innovative that small versions of it exist only in Belgium and Germany. A full-scale solution like ours hasn't been built anywhere yet," Allikas noted.

"This system can sort 28 different types of textiles, and if we wanted to, even by color. The smallest piece the robot can handle is three by three centimeters," he added.

Allikas described the system as a global first, capable of distinguishing textiles using sensors. "It incorporates seven different technologies, including laser scanners, infrared sensors and more. It's packed with advanced technology," he said.

When asked why similar sorting systems aren't used elsewhere in the world, Allikas cited multiple reasons. "I've traveled to over 10 countries and seen their systems. There's a cultural aspect to it. In terms of innovation, there's very little actual dialogue," he said.

Allikas emphasized that Greenful's solution is a mix of bespoke innovation and proven machinery and components that are readily available. He added that if the project were to fail, the machines could easily be resold. "These are in high demand, so they wouldn't be left sitting idle," he assured.

Greenful plans to hire 150 employees who, according to Allikas, will focus on materials science, engineering and maintaining production lines. Workers will not sort textiles manually, though they may pack cotton waste. Salaries in Sillamäe will be slightly above the Estonian average, Allikas promised.

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