{"id":174055,"date":"2026-03-06T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=174055"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:50:04","slug":"smart-containers-for-europes-discarded-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/smart-containers-for-europes-discarded-clothes\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart containers for Europe\u2019s discarded clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\u00a9 annaspoka\/stock.adobe.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The EU-funded\u00a0TexMat<\/a>\u00a0project is setting up a decentralised textile collection system that will make textile recycling and reuse easy and rewarding for consumers. The deposit return system being developed for used textiles across Europe promises to reduce textile waste and the impact it has on the environment. The TexMat initiative will encourage consumers to return reusable and recyclable garments through a system of financial incentives. It will also notify producers when discarded items require formal waste management.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An automated solution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s innovative approach to textile waste comes in the form of decentralised textile collection. Smart collection containers will help sort returned textiles, assess quality and record material information using\u00a0digital product passports (DPPs)<\/a>, which the EU is phasing in starting in 2026-2027. The textiles will be sorted into reusable textiles for second-hand sellers, recyclable textiles for recycling operators and textile waste for waste management. Pilot activities will be held in Spain and Finland to test the system in real-world settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TexMat innovation supports the implementation of key elements of the EU\u2019s\u00a0Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Circular Economy Act<\/a>. These include mandatory textile waste collection, the introduction of DPPs, and extended producer responsibility, an environmental policy approach that shifts the responsibility of a product’s life cycle to the producer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u201cTexMat solution has great potential to transform the collection and resale of used but still valuable garments, supporting second-hand markets while enabling consumers to monetise their textiles,\u201d comments Elina Il\u00e9n, lead scientist at TexMat project coordinator VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,<\/strong> in a\u00a0news item<\/a>\u00a0posted on \u2018Just Style Magazine<\/em>\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy developing a cost-effective, robust, and user-friendly solution, we aim to relieve consumers of the need to evaluate which garments can be resold for reuse or recycling. Automated collection and sorting will also support textile waste management operators by quickly and accurately separating garments suitable for reuse from those destined for disposal, reducing reliance on manual work.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The innovation responds to the urgent need for Europe to significantly scale up its sorting and recycling capacities. The numbers speak for themselves: In 2022, the EU generated around 6.94 million tonnes of textile waste \u2013 only a slight improvement from the 2020 figure of 6.95 million tonnes, which corresponds to 16 kg per person. Of these 16 kg, only 4.4 kg per person were collected separately to be reused or recycled. The rest ended up in mixed household waste, which was then dumped in landfills or incinerated. In 2022, 85% of household textile waste ended up in landfills or incineration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TexMat project<\/a> (AUTOMATED COLLECTION AND SORTING SOLUTION FOR CONSUMER TEXTILES) was launched in October 2025, bringing together 14 partners representing European civil society, research and academia, industry, and its tech and ICT sectors. The project will run until 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU-funded\u00a0TexMat\u00a0project is setting up a decentralised textile collection system that will make textile recycling and reuse easy and rewarding for consumers. The deposit return system being developed for used textiles across Europe promises to reduce textile waste and the impact it has on the environment. The TexMat initiative will encourage consumers to return reusable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":174119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"TexMat is developing a deposit return system to boost collection, reuse and recycling of garments consumers no longer want","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[10416,10453,25972,12468,22957,15993],"supplier":[5585,459],"class_list":["post-174055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-circulareconomy","tag-recycling","tag-sorting","tag-textiles","tag-textilewaste","tag-wastemanagement","supplier-european-union","supplier-vtt-technical-research-centre-of-finland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174055"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=174055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}