Overview of the 2024/2025 Northeast Scouring Pilot Study:

The Northeast has been challenged over the past decade (and beyond!) with adequate and timely access to the scouring of wool. Without scouring, the ability to create new products that range from home and fashion products to building and gardening materials is at a snail’s pace.

While there are spinning mills that offer scouring, most do not want to promote that they offer the service and prefer to get wool clean and ready for spinning. Mills that get dirty wool give preference to clean wool and customers report (on average) waiting for a year to get their wool back. The cost and wait time means a loss in sales at markets and little incentive to do anything but throw out their wool or stockpile it in fields and barns. “It’s just not worth it,” is something we hear all the time.

Local mills and businesses that process wool into insulation, duvet covers, erosion and frost blankets are open to receiving clean wool to make products, adding a financial boost to farmers, but they can’t use dirty wool in their machines. This doesn’t help farmers.

Drawing on a region (the Northeast including Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York) we will look at a number of factors (supply, costs, water, energy, tools, and infrastructure) to create a replicable and regionally malleable template for other Fibersheds to use and create regional scouring.

We see this study as vital to helping wool farmers in our region create new products from their wool, and in turn, keeping them engaged and prospering on their land.

Goals:
-Determine the regional need for scouring services with data from farms and processors.
-Feasibility of water/energy usage reduction and repurposing as well as  lanolin harvesting.
-Wool product feasibility across a range of industries (textile, building, industrial, arts, and gardening)
-Create an open source template for scouring facility research and implementation

Links to surveys for farmers and mills:

Farm survey

Mill survey

Questions? Email amy@senefibershed.org