Global fashion innovation platform, Fashion For Good, has announced the launch of its Sorting of Circularity project with the aim to drive textile recycling in the industry. The project involves a comprehensive textile waste analysis which will use improved near infrared technology, and will map current and future capabilities of recyclers. Near infrared technology is a technique that uses naturally occurring electromagnetic spectrum to analyse a particular substance or material, and is already being used in the pharmaceutical, food and agriculture industries.
With the Sorting of Circularity project, an open digital platform will be created which will help match textile waste from sorters with recyclers. Fashion brands like Adidas, Bestseller, and Zalando, along with Inditex as an external partner, will help Fashion for Good facilitate the project. Meanwhile, a wider group working with Fashion for Good includes Arvind Limited, Birla Cellulose, Levi Strauss & Co., Otto, and Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation.
In a press release about the project, Katrin Ley, Managing Director at Fashion for Good said, “The aim of the 18-month project is to create a greater link between textile sorters and textile recyclers; stimulating a recycling market for unwanted textiles that can generate new revenue streams for sorters. Traditionally, the sorting industry generates income through the sale of reusable textiles, with the remainder being downcycled, incinerated or landfilled. To achieve a circular system, a new end-market for non-reusable textile is required, with an infrastructure and digital matching system that can support activities of sorters and recyclers.”
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