Sorting: Tech helps to perform a balancing act


Automated sorting lines are key to the textile recycling industry’s growth, but technology providers are finding the evolving needs of customers are not straightforward. By David Eldridge


Companies involved in used textile sorting, resale and recycling are just at the start of their circularity journey. They do not have settled strategies yet, markets are immature and their business models are being developed and adapted as they progress. Uncer- tainties manifest at the sorting stage as companies try to work out their targets against a backdrop of increasing throughput, feedstock complexity and uncertain demand. What is the best balance in sorting for reuse and sorting for recycling? In response to these uncertainties, sorting technology providers have to show patience and close attention with customers, accord- ing to company leaders who shared their experiences with TextilesLoop. “This is a brand new industry that is still finding out its needs,” said Arantxa Mur, the lead in the Marketing & Comms Department at Picvisa (which hosted a panel discussion with three of its sorting customers at the conference during Textiles Recycling Expo – see box, p15). Spain-based Picvisa produces a


range of optical sorting systems for different materials. For textiles, it has developed Ecosort which identifies and classifies used garments by textile composition, colour and type, and is sold to companies in the reuse and recycling markets. Picvisa combines machine vision technology with AI-driven identification to enable customers to target high-value fractions.


But those targets can change. “Sometimes we start commissioning [a


sorting line] and the client doesn’t know what they want even at that point,” said Mur. Picvisa is a relatively small company


which, she said, is an advantage as it can work closely with clients, offering tailored systems, and adapting software to build classifier databases suited to each client’s needs. Change is a feature of the sorting sector as a whole. Three years ago, there was a lot of interest in automated sorting technology but no investment, she said. In 2025, Picvisa secured its first textile sorting customer, and this achievement has since been followed


by more textile deals for the company, some of them turnkey plant projects. There would be more certainty about market development for sorters and their technology suppliers if clothing brands committed to recycled fibres in large volumes. Those that are working with recycled content are currently doing so in capsule collec- tions. Mur said brands are scouting technologies at the moment and Picvisa has hosted a number of them at its test centre in Barcelona. Picvisa is positive about the poten- tial for sorting market growth in textiles. She said the company thinks it


Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026 11


Image: Shutterstock


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