Textile Insight

in North America. We charge them an upfront fee for our sorting device, and a monthly subscription for our data services," explains Gomez. "Additionally, we are expanding our customer base to other stakeholders in the industry with our soware and data services that enhance circularity and transparency. We recently launched a pilot program for brands, offering them traceability of their materials including volumes processed, categories they are sorted for, end markets, impact measurements, etc." Launched in 2018, NYC-based SuperCircle is a technology and reverse logistics platform that bridges the gap from retail to recycling. Working with brand partners such as Reformation, Tentree, MATE the Label, ousand Fell, and QE Home, the company incentivizes consumers to send back unwanted clothes; then by plugging into its brand partners' websites, SuperCircle pulls in order management history to understand product data and fiber breakdown for the returned items. "When a customer recycles through a SuperCircle takeback program, they receive credit back at the brand they recycled that can be used on their next purchase," explains Stuart Ahlum, the company's co-founder and COO. e garments received by SuperCircle are sorted and aggregated by material/fiber type/composition and other key recycling factors in their own warehouse. "When we take back items, we find the best solution for that material to ensure a responsible and traceable end of life solution for the item. SuperCircle works within the waste hierarchy, receiving, sorting, and identifying items that are not ready for circular recycling, and working with resale partners to ensure that item enters a resale market," Ahlum continues. "Once enough material of a certain kind has been collected (think 10,000+ cotton t-shirts), our recycling partners will ensure that the material that can be taken fiber-to-fiber will make its way into new yarn and eventually textiles. e rest will be recycled, open loop into other mixed-use items." Bringing Circular Recycling to Scale The current business model is unlikely to change until there is enough fiber-to-fiber textile recycling here in North America to create demand for sorted feedstock. But interest is growing. According to the McKinsey State of Fashion 2022 report, "As an increasing number of fashion players commit to circular materials, scaling will be essential in collection, sorting and recycling. However, the rollout of industrial processes will drive down prices and boost demand for garments made from circular materials." Fashion for Good recently launched e Sorting for Circularity USA Project, which will survey and analyze textile waste generated in the U.S. in order to understand and evaluate the business case for textile-to-textile recycling. In a press release, Katrin Ley, managing director at Fashion for Good, stated, "e U.S. presents a great opportunity with the potential for incredible positive impacts, considering the volume of the consumer market and post-con- sumer textiles landscape." The European Approach to Textile Waste • EU legislation already mandates separate collec- tion of textile waste by member states beginning in 2025. • e EU Waste Framework Directive's 2023 revision includes EPR, which makes producers responsible for the end-of-use phase of their products and includes economic incentives. • e European Commission is likely to propose mandatory targets for the reuse and recycling of textiles in 2024. e Commission is pushing for a coordinated approach across the EU to streamline the process and create an economy for collating, sorting, repair and reuse of old textiles. • Several European companies have already developed textile sorting machines driven by NIRS. ese include Valvan Fibersort (Wieland Textiles, Belgium, 2018); Spectral Engines' Nirone scanner (LSJH, Finland, 2019); and Tomra/ Stadler Autosort (Sysav SIPtex, Sweden, 2022). • e UK's largest charity-owned textile collector, e Salvation Army, is trialing the Fibersort machine to help identify and valorize the 60,000 tonnes of textile donations it receives each year. SATcol, the trading arm of e Salvation Army, diverts over 250 million items per year away from landfills by repurposing them. Legislation, U.S. Recycling and a Circular Model • California's proposed Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2023 would establish a program for the collection and recycling of any apparel or textile article unsuitable for reuse. It will make textile producers and stakeholders responsible for dealing with the repair or recycling of unusable textile products, keeping them out of landfills. • Signed into law in 2023, the New York State Carpet Bill requires carpet manufacturers to establish a program for the collection and recy- cling of discarded and unused carpeting. New York State generates about 515 million pounds of carpet waste annually. n Phototonic fibers could enable easier textile sorting. SuperCircle incentivizes consumers to recycle clothes. Tomra's fully automated textile sorter uses NRIS. STRATEGIES / CIRCULARITY 36 • Textile Insight ~ Spring 2023 textileinsight.com

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