Polyester marles pose significant environmental challenges. Polyester, used in knitted marle and stretch woven fabrics, makes up 60–70% of global textiles and has similar environmental impacts to plastic. The other marle component, cotton, is dyed to provide the thread’s colour. The dyeing process for cotton uses toxic synthetic dyes, consumes vast amounts of fresh water and requires significant energy for heating and washing.

Additionally, most Australian wool and cotton processing occurs offshore due to the lack of commercial cotton spinning facilities in Australia. Cotton fibre is exported for yarn production and then re-imported for fabric manufacturing, adding to the environmental footprint.

Creating onshore sovereign capability to produce an environmentally friendly, natural fibre marle yarn is essential to enabling circularity in the textile industry.

Mud to Marle is developing a plastic-free, durable, comfort stretch woven textile using wool for stretch and cotton for durability. It introduces a new wool-only dyeing method to reduce the carbon footprint. By using lower-grade, shorter wool to create a yarn with the lowest impact milling footprint possible, Mud to Marle will create a premium fabric that capitalises on the natural properties of both fibres.

Funded by Country Road’s Climate Fund, the Mud to Marle project is led by social enterprise Full Circle Fibres in collaboration with Deakin University’s ANFF-supported Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) and LoomTex, the Australian Textile Mill & Dyehouse.

The project’s goal is to trial an end-to-end marle yarn manufacturing process through sourcing Australian-grown wool and cotton with all production steps performed entirely onshore.

The wool used in their marle yarn is shorter, lower value fibre, blended with cotton for functionality and to prevent wool shrinkage. Wool provides close-to-skin comfort, while cotton adds strength. The dyeing process, in which only 30% of the wool is dyed, significantly reduces water and chemical use compared to traditional cotton dyeing methods.

Wool fibres are ethically sourced from Michell Wool in South Australia and then shipped to Geelong for yarn production. LoomTex dyes the wool fibres using more environmentally friendly methods. Although wool is not usually spun on cotton-spinning equipment, IFM’s Future Fibres Institute operates the only cotton-spinning facility in Australia and has adapted it to also spin wool. The resulting marle yarn will enable production of unique woven and knitted natural-fibre fabrics that can be composted or recycled.

This innovative marle yarn demonstrates an advance in textile manufacturing, showcasing the ability to process underutilised wool on automated cotton-spinning equipment. By combining wool and cotton, the yarn gains the advantages of both. All manufacturing stages occur in Australia, proving that low-impact, circular textile production is viable for Australia’s garment industry.

Onshore yarn manufacturing is crucial for developing resilient local supply chains amid global events. The Mud to Marle project demonstrates the potential for creating truly ‘Made in Australia’ fabrics.