From fleece to fibre: inside Uruguay’s Lanas Trinidad wool mill

Visiting the farms showed us where our merino wool begins.

Our next stop showed us just how much happens before that wool is ready to become a textile.

At Lanas Trinidad in Uruguay, raw wool is washed, cleaned and combed into the smooth wool tops that can then continue their journey through the textile supply chain.

But what fascinated us most was not only how wool is processed. It was how the mill has rethought what happens to everything around the wool fibre.

Raw wool is much more than wool

Freshly shorn wool contains far more than the fibre itself.

A typical example shown by Lanas Trinidad consists of approximately 65% wool fibre, with the rest made up of natural wool grease, suint, dirt and other matter.

Traditionally, much of what is removed during processing could simply be treated as waste.

At Lanas Trinidad, the ambition is different: to find value in as many of these components as possible.

First step: scouring

The raw wool first needs to be thoroughly washed, or scoured, to remove grease, dirt and impurities.

Lanas Trinidad uses rainwater as part of the scouring process.

During washing, natural wool grease is separated and recovered rather than discarded. That wool grease can then become a raw material for other industries, including applications connected to lanolin.

The wool itself continues to the next stage.

From clean wool to wool tops

After scouring, the wool is combed.

Combing aligns the fibres and removes shorter fibres and remaining impurities, producing long, smooth and consistent wool tops.

Seeing this transformation in person — from raw fleece to beautifully clean, soft lengths of fibre — was remarkable.

But the story does not stop with the wool.

Turning by-products into resources

This was perhaps the most impressive part of the visit.

Lanas Trinidad has developed a circular-economy approach around its wool processing, looking for ways to reuse and regenerate materials that would otherwise be considered waste.

Some examples:

• Wool grease is recovered for use in other industries.
• Wool dust can be used as a biofertiliser by local farmers.
• Effluent water is treated through a system of lagoons.
• Anaerobic digestion captures biogas.
• That biogas can be used to generate electricity.
• Treated water can support irrigation.
• The lagoon system has also developed into a habitat supporting local biodiversity.

At Lanas Trinidad, the remaining effluent is biologically treated through a system of 22 lagoons. Methane-rich biogas generated during the process is captured and used to produce renewable energy, while the treated water is used for irrigation.

When waste becomes part of the system

What we found particularly interesting was the interconnectedness of everything.

Wool processing produces materials that can support agriculture. Wastewater becomes a resource to be treated and reused. Organic matter can become energy. A by-product from one process becomes an input somewhere else.

The mill's philosophy is essentially to “disassemble” the natural raw material and find useful applications for as many components as possible.

That changes the way you think about manufacturing.

We came to understand how wool becomes fibre.

We left thinking much more broadly about how thoughtful industrial processes can reduce waste, recover resources and connect back into local farming systems.

And from here, the wool continues on its journey towards becoming Dagsmejan Stay Warm.

Next: Follow our merino wool from farm to finished sleepwear