OUR AUTOMATED SORTING LINE IN POLCH, GERMANY
Our Automatic Sorting Line in Polch, Germany
Sometimes, clothes are just too worn out or damaged to be reused. Time for a new life via recycling!
The material, color, and weave of a garment are key drivers for what the garment can become in its next life, whether that is wipers for cleaning, stuffing for car cushions, or even new textile yarns.
You might have heard about recycling companies that aspire to reduce resource consumption by turning waste into new materials. Each of these companies has its own requirements for the types of textiles that work with their technology. Some recyclers say, “We need garments that are 95% cotton.” Others say, “We need garments that are at least 50% polyester.” For them to do their job, we first need to do ours, which is to turn a mound of unwanted garments into a carefully sorted set of textiles ready for its next use.
Step one to enable recycling for us is to determine - what is this garment made of?
Looper Textile Co. has invested heavily in technology that enables us to sort quickly and accurately. We’ve built an automated sorting line that does something amazing: it sorts through a trail of discarded garments, bucketing out each by material. So, cotton ends with cotton, polyester with polyester, and so on. We can meet the specifications of even the most demanding textile recyclers, and we can do so quickly and with great accuracy.
We use NIR (near infrared) technology and optical sensors to do this. The technology has been used for years to sort recycled materials like plastic and glass. With the adaptations we’ve made, our sorting line determines the color and composition of fabric in each piece of clothing. Right now, we can sort through over 30 different types of fabrics, and the number is growing.
Ever wondered how NIR actually works? We've made it simple with our illustration below. Take a look and see how we're preparing unwanted garments for recycling!
Sample illustration: how NIR works…
