Collection and sorting of textile waste is essential for valorizing and recovering it as a valuable resource. So far, the sorting process is mostly done manually, which poses an efficiency problem as manual sorting cannot cope with the increasing volumes of textile waste.

Siptex stands for Swedish Innovation Platform for TEXtile sorting and is a project funded by Vinnova, led by the IVL Swedish Environmental Institute and supported by a broad consortium of Swedish fashion and furniture brands. The sorting plant in Malmö is owned and operated by Sysav, Sydskåne's waste company.

The facility functions as follows:

Textiles get collected in three different categories of textile material:

- Pre-consumer material, meaning textiles from industry such as production waste.

- Post-consumer material that is pre-sorted and of a specific product type, e.g. clothing, bedding or towels.

- Residual textiles from both consumers and industry, e.g. garments that can't be sold as second-hand goods.

Optical sensors are then used to identify the fabric material and colour and sort it accordingly. Sorted textiles are then packed and sent off to recycling partners for fibre-to-fibre recycling.

Large volumes of textile waste are efficiently sorted with high precision through this facility. This enables a better (fibre-to-fibre) recycling of textile waste and reduces the need for using virgin materials in textile production, fully supporting circularity in the textile industry.

Photo source: https://www.ecotextile.com/images/stories/2020/November/Siptex.jpg