Evaluation of Tagging & Sorting Technologies which could be applied to clothing and household textiles

This project built on previous work on textile recycling commissioned by WRAP and Defra. It explored whether technology can be used to increase the fraction of discarded clothing and household textiles that are reprocessed in a financially viable way. A technical and economic assessment identified four candidates:  manual sorting, the incumbent method; fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR); radio frequency identification (RFID) tags; and 2D bar codes.  Each of these technologies was evaluated to identify strengths and weaknesses, and financial implications.  It was concluded that the most promising choice of technology to help achieve a circular economy in textiles is 2D bar codes.

Collaborative Partners

Oakdene Hollins

Outputs

WRAP report: “Technologies for sorting end of life textiles”  

Impact

The work undertaken provides an analysis of technologies relevant to the large-scale recycling of textile wastes that is essential for moving towards a circular economy in textiles.  Although the details of the technologies need updating, the principles behind the analysis remain relevant to the societal challenge. 

Funding

Funding was provided by WRAP, who also published the report. 

Oakdene Hollins had a successful tender for the work, and subcontracted the MMU team for a fee.