Louisa Hoyes of Tomra Recycling, highlights the challenge of overcoming the deep disconnect between automated textile waste sorting capabilities and market scale.
The global textile recycling market is finally shifting to an industrial scale. For years, progress was stalled by a fundamental lack of synchronization across the value chain. Now, decisive policy action is providing the essential financial anchor needed to bridge this gap.
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Autosort
Our solution for all complex sorting tasks – including whole, cut or shredded garments – is the Autosort unit. Its core strength is its multifunctionality, providing unmatched versatility in both material handling and sensor integration across various applications. The unit employs a combination of sensors – NIR (near-infrared for fibre composition), VIS (visible spectroscopy for colour) and EM (electromagnetic for metal detection). This flexible and integrated sensor combination ensures the highest purity and enables optimal downstream processes for every feedstock. To maximise purity before shredding post-consumer clothing, we find it most efficient to sort the whole articles first prior to shredding.
Tomra’s A/B sorting concept – refined over more than three decades across industrial recycling streams like plastics and metals – offers a proven blueprint for scaling textile sorting. Unlike low-volume line sorters, Autosort is designed for high throughput, targeting one pure material fraction (A) while allowing all other materials to drop (B). This singular focus ensures the purity required by chemical and advanced mechanical recyclers, and the system enables a throughput of up to 4.5 tons per hour. For customers needing multiple fractions, cascading Autosort units – each leveraging advanced sensor integration – enable precise recovery of all desired materials from the infeed stream.
Sorting alone isn’t enough. To meet the strict input requirements or recyclers, Tomra has been working with Vecoplan, a leader in shredding technology, to deliver a complete solution. This integrated concept covers the full pre-treatment process, from advanced sorting and contaminant removal (like zippers and buttons) to size reduction and purification. Together, we eliminate a major barrier to scale – ensuring customers can deliver high-quality, recycler-ready feedstock.
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