In the Prato textile district of Italy, the mechanical engineering firm Dell’Orco e Villani is extending its business from traditional textile waste regeneration to industrial hemp applications in construction, automotive and other fields. Based in Capalle, Campi Bisenzio, the company has designed and built machinery and production lines for textile fiber recovery and regeneration since 1964. In recent years it has begun processing natural raw materials such as hemp and has established partnerships with international companies including the American hemp insulation board maker Hempitecture, aiming to turn textile waste or plant-based raw materials into new industrial products.

The company was founded by Giovanni Dell’Orco and Silvano Villani, prompted by the rise of man-made fibers. According to Sara Villani, when the first synthetic textile fibers were just appearing, her father and his partner developed machines that could process these new fibers more efficiently. In the 1970s the company moved to its current site, a plant of about three thousand square meters; it is still a family business, now led by Sara Villani, her brother Andrea and her father Claudio, with 98% of its products exported. She says it stayed in Tuscany because its ties to the local area and textile tradition have become part of its identity, but its business serves customers worldwide.

Textile recycling has always been the company’s core business. Its equipment and production lines open, clean and blend textile waste and fibers so they can be reused. Villani says the company was founded to give textile waste new life, and it keeps investing in technology to recover materials that would otherwise be landfilled. Its experience with wool and cotton has allowed it to extend its processing capabilities to plant fibers such as hemp. In her view, every fiber has specific requirements, and every project must be calibrated to production conditions and target results.

Hemp is versatile because of its agronomic and mechanical properties: it can be spun as long fiber, felted as short fiber, or used as a structural component of insulation boards. These applications require engineering capability and technical adjustments, which is where the company excels.

The company sees the circular economy as a driver of innovation. Its equipment is not a standardized product but is designed around the raw material and the final product. Massimo Pisaneschi, from the company’s sales department, explains that about two years ago the company built a line in the United States for Hempitecture, which uses hemp mixed with 5% to 10% thermal bonding fiber to produce building insulation boards, heat-set in an oven and used in residential wall cavities. The wood-frame construction system common in the United States favors such materials; the project was financed through crowdfunding and exceeded expectations.

Demand for natural raw materials is also rising in industrial sectors beyond textiles. Pisaneschi says Poland and Germany use blends of natural and synthetic fibers to produce automotive interior parts, which must look good and be molded into the shape of the corresponding vehicle model. This shows that plant fibers such as hemp can replace plastic or synthetic materials, achieving large-scale industrial application while reducing environmental impact.

However, Pisaneschi believes Italy’s hemp supply chain has not yet reached industrial scale: it consists mostly of micro-projects linked to agriculture or small startups, while the industry requires investment in industrial equipment; without scaled projects and sufficient funding, it is hard to build a competitive supply chain. The gap with France is clear—France’s hemp supply chain is supported by strong companies and supportive policies, while Italy’s experience is limited and discontinuous, often using machinery derived from agricultural equipment that is not necessarily suited to large-scale production. The key problem is the lack of a coherent industrial policy linking agricultural production, mechanical processing and end markets.

The implementation of the circular economy is also constrained by logistics. Pisaneschi points out that for bulky, lightweight products such as insulation boards, transport costs have a major impact, and production close to the point of use is more economical; yarns and fabrics, with a more favorable weight-to-volume ratio, are better suited to export. This pushes companies and customers toward decentralized, regionalized production models to strengthen resilience to logistics and environmental crises.

Dell’Orco e Villani’s history is rooted in Prato: the local reuse of rags and textile waste created an industrial model regarded as a precursor of the circular economy. Staying there is not only a matter of logistics convenience but reflects a connection to an industrial district with expertise in fiber processing. Textile recycling machinery remains the core of the business, but its expansion into plant fibers such as hemp and into non-textile applications such as building insulation and technical composites shows that industry boundaries are being redrawn. This requires adequate infrastructure and a stable supply of raw materials, which Italy does not yet guarantee in the hemp sector. The Hempitecture case shows that where the regulatory environment is favorable and capital supports industrial facilities, mechanical engineering can combine with emerging plant-based supply chains; in Italy, hemp cultivation remains marginal and fragmented, and replicating a similar model depends on whether farmers, processors, machinery makers and end users can coordinate.

Plant-based supply chains and the circular economy also face obstacles such as agricultural organization, fragmented supply chains and uncoordinated investment; the regulatory framework affects the ability to plan stable cultivation and industrial outlets, while logistics limits exports of bulky products. International demand in bio-construction and automotive does exist, but meeting it requires reliable, standardized processes. Moving from a textile economy based on virgin fibers to a system that values waste and natural raw materials requires collective choices on regulation, investment, logistics infrastructure and R&D—a challenge that goes beyond textiles to the entire manufacturing system, agriculture, and the way resources are managed and transformed.

Source: Hemp and textile recycling: Dell’Orco e Villani in the circular supply chain · Originally published 2026-09-14