First Automated Textile Waste Sorting and Recycling Line in France
France’s first industrial plant for automated sorting and recycling of textile waste was established at the company Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, Amplepuis.
The plant, which was officially inaugurated on the last day of November last year, is the result of a partnership between textile recycling company Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, waste sorting specialist Pellenc ST and international technology group Andritz, headquartered in Austria. According to Andritz, this partnership “is a clear contribution to tackling the challenge of textile waste in the EU”. The European Union’s strategy for sustainable and circular textiles would aim to ensure that by 2030 textile products are made to a great extent of recycled fibers and incineration and landfilling of textiles are minimized.
Capable of automatically sorting garments by composition and color, the new line would meet the needs of both post-consumer and post-industrial waste markets, the engineering firm gave account. It would also remove hard parts such as buttons and zippers to prepare the material for further processing in a tearing machine.
As reported, the automated textile sorting line at Nouvelles Fibres Textiles is dedicated to industrial-scale production, customer trials and projects, and the R&D activities of the partners. It would process textile waste to produce recycled fibers for the spinning, nonwovens, and composites industries. “The opening of the new line marks a milestone in our efforts to turn textile waste into resources. And we are already laying the foundations for a second material preparation plant with a capacity to process 25,000 tons of post-consumer textiles per year,” Eric Boel, General Manager, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, was quoted. Automated sorting was seen as the last missing link needed to develop a complete ecosystem in France, where the fashion industry, social and solidarity economy actors, waste management companies, and textile producers from different sectors are working together towards a textile circular economy.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2024, Page 18, Photo: Andritz)
