Autosort for Circular Textiles - ACT UK

This is a pivotal time for UK fashion and textiles. It is essential that the sector strengthens its sustainable competitiveness, needing a fundamental change driven by industrial research and development. With the need to improve the impact of the sector on people and planet, the UK is competing on an international stage. But the prize for those who get there first is two-fold. The winner will enjoy the social and environmental benefits, but also the economic benefit of being a world leader in the provision of circular fashion and textiles.

Today, over 1 million tonnes of used textiles are generated annually in the UK. An estimated 1/3 are non-rewearable textiles (NRT) which are currently being lost through export, to be sorted in lower cost labour regions, or to landfill/incineration.

The **ACT Demonstrator** is focused on a solution to overcome these challenges and on achieving _Materials Circularity_ for NRT so they are collected, sorted and processed into feedstock for existing and emerging recycling processes, keeping these resources in circulation.

While Product Circularity is equally important, it's widely recognised that fibre to fibre (F2F) recycling is essential for Materials Circularity, replacing the use of virgin resources, and supporting the textile industry in reaching its climate positive targets. However, the used textile supply chain is not currently equipped to supply these facilities.

F2F recycling processes exist at different stages of industrialisation and will scale from 2025 onwards, with operating capacities reaching over 50,000 tonnes per annum, per plant. For the UK to benefit economically, environmentally and socially, **the used textiles supply chain is need of radical innovation and advancement.**

The ACT Demonstrator is not starting from scratch. Nascent variations of automated sorting approaches are coming to the market from around the globe, with most of the new innovations happening in Europe including in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Spain, among others. This project will innovate, combine and advance existing and new supporting technologies to overcome the current market failure by bringing together the most relevant optical sorting technologies, robotics, conveyance and pre-processing techniques into an industrial scale process with development of an Automated Textile Sorting and Pre-processing facility (**ATSP**), solely for NRT of all types.

In addition, the project will trial and integrate digital and circularity technologies and services which will be required by brands/retailers, including blockchain and transparency services, product passports and life cycle analyses for the ecosystem. The trials and learnings, from a circular systems perspective, will enable businesses to proactively prepare for new legislation. We envision the outcome from this project, and laying the foundations for a scaled ATSP facility, to unlock real commercial opportunities for all companies actively engaged in accelerating circular supply chains.