Automatic sorting of textile waste

Automatic sorting is a must!

When consumer textiles are no longer suitable for reuse or repair, the next best option is recycling. However, post-consumer textiles recycling is no easy task as they are made up of many different materials and composed in complex designs.

Automatic sorting is a must - and a prerequisite - for both mechanical and chemical recycling!

Therefore, as cities, regions, and producer responsibility organisations across Europe are preparing and implementing new collection schemes for post-consumer textiles, the race is on to develop automatic sorting solutions, which are able to categorise and sort the textiles according to e.g., their fibre composition, structure, and colour. City of Copenhagen and the companies SOEX and I:CO Spirit have partnered up to support this development and to develop a deep understanding of the post-consumer textile compositions and recycling options.

As part of the partnership, SOEX will analyse batches of post-consumer, non-reusable textiles from Copenhagen according to 17 different qualities/categories using state-of-the-art automatic sorting technology at the company's test facility in Hamburg.

The sorting tests will provide an overview of the composition of the received textile waste (based on volume/percentage) as well as an input-output flow chart with information about types of different outputs and quantities. The partnership will help the City of Copenhagen's preparations for an upcoming household collection scheme for post-consumer textiles.

Results will be made publicly available through the Circular Copenhagen website.