Wargön Innovation receives funding from SST to automate moisture detection in textile sorting

Wargön Innovation has been granted funding from TEKO's Swedish Textile Research Foundation (SST) to invest in equipment that can automatically detect moisture in textile sorting. The initiative aims to reduce the loss of value of collected textiles, create a safer and better working environment and to ensure accurate material analysis, which is crucial for the efficient management of textile waste.

The new EU directive on the mandatory collection of textile waste from 2025 is expected to lead to a sharp increase in volumes collected. Experience from Denmark shows that a significant proportion of the collected material is moist, dirty or moldy, leading to costly manual sorting processes and material having to go to incineration. The equipment at Wargön Innovation will use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to identify damp textiles automatically. The goal is to be able to detect and sort out at least 40% of the damp textiles without manual handling.

- Moisture, and by extension mold, risks destroying large amounts of textile material that could instead be reused or recycled. By automatically identifying and sorting out damp textiles, we can not only improve the working environment and reduce costs, but also increase the quality of circulated products and thus enable sustainable business," says Markus Danell, Operations Manager at Wargön Innovation.

The new equipment, which is one of several analytical tools for building quality-assured and cost-effective value chains, will be installed in Wargön Innovation's test and demo facility for industrial textile sorting, where it will be used in several innovation projects. The technology will also be made available to a wide range of actors in the circular textile industry, thereby strengthening the competitiveness of Swedish business.

The investment is made possible through funding from the Swedish Textile Research Foundation (SST), whose principal is the industry and employers' organization TEKO, the Swedish Textile and Fashion Association. Through this investment, SST and TEKO strengthen the Swedish textile industry's ability to meet future demands for sustainability and circularity.

- The requirements for separate collection of textile waste have contributed to a significant increase in collected material. It is crucial that we have smart and efficient sorting solutions in place to ensure that as much textile as possible can be reused and recycled," says Cecilia Nykvist, CEO of TEKO and Chair of SST.