Using artificial intelligence to extract trims, zips and buttons to create clean textile feedstock, a Belgian company at the recent ITMA in Milan may have solved how to close the gap between textile sorting and recycling.
Although precise global figures are not available, academics at North Carolina State University last year estimated that textile waste represents anything between 65 and 92 million of the approximately two billion tons of global municipal solid waste (MSW) generated annually.
These types of figures have ignited action by the European Commission to introduce proposals for a mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles in all its member states.
