Skip to footer

Fake wool from slaughterhouse waste: Novel solution or 'creepy?'

Researchers have pioneered a new method for producing a wool-like fiber from collagen produced as a by-product of meat production.

|
Functional Materials Laboratory
Gelatine vs. merino wool: The glove on the left has a silky sheen, whereas the glove made of sheep’s wool has no luster. However, more regular knits are possible with the latter.

Animal activists are trying to unravel the yarn spun by Swiss scientists who are spinning slaughterhouse waste in a possible cashmere replacement.

Wool is big business worldwide, and the effort to create the next softer, better, cheaper version of it has become somewhat of a scientific golden fleece.

However, the head of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which offers a “Vegan Knitting Guide,” has taken a stand against a product that scientists say will be a boon to the textile industry and those who love, but can’t afford, soft, high-end, wool products.

Philipp Stössel, a 28-year-old PhD student in Professor Wendelin Stark’s Functional Materials Laboratory (FML), in Zurich, Switzerland, has created a new fiber from the leftover bones and ligaments of animals that, when converted to gelatin and spun into fibers, can be knitted or woven into a soft wool alternative.

Mr. Stössel says in the company’s release Friday, “Gelatine consists chiefly of collagen, a main component of skin, bone, and tendons. Large quantities of collagen are found in slaughterhouse waste and can be easily made into gelatin.” 

“It's creepy to wear the gelatin that oozes out of animal bones in any form, but even worse, perhaps, than how it must feel psychologically to drape yourself in animal remains is that buying this clothing supports a gruesome industry that inflicts fear and pain on other sentient beings like us," says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in an exclusive statement released to The Christian Science Monitor today.

American textile expert Deborah Young, of Los Angeles, Calif., says in an interview that, “We have been trying to replicate what comes from nature forever, with varying degrees of success.”

“There is the notion that if the animal is being used for meat to use all parts of it, which is a Native American sort of respect idea to using the entire animal,” says Ms. Young. “But that really sounds a little gross.”

According to Young it might be more accurate to call this product “the new Azlon, since wool is defined as animal hair only.”

“Azlon [created during WWII] made from skim milk protein (casein) fiber wasn’t popular because people didn’t want to wear skim milk,” Young says. 

The issue with FML fiber is that they are weak when wet, according to FML’s release which is an aspect the inventor is still working on.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Fake wool from slaughterhouse waste: Novel solution or 'creepy?'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0807/Fake-wool-from-slaughterhouse-waste-Novel-solution-or-creepy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe