Textile Collection, Sorting & Recycling: The challenges we need to overcome

Textile EPR How can Europe build a commercially viable circular textile system? In this episode, Louisa Hoyes, who has worked on building up textile circularity for the past 7 years, explains why building a circular textile system requires much more than advances in recycling technology. What you'll hear in this episode: • Why collection, sorting and recycling should be designed as one connected value chain rather than separate industries. • The commercial challenges of scaling textile circularity, including infrastructure investment, feedstock quality, demand for recycled fibres, and business model innovation. • How Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can accelerate investment, improve traceability, and support fibre-to-fibre recycling. The episode also covers emerging recycling technologies, collaboration across the textile value chain, and the expected timeline for scaling Europe's textile circularity infrastructure. **People** Louisa Hoyes https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-hoyes/ Patrick Hypscher, Circular Business Strategist, PaaS Expert https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypscher/ **Chapters** 00:00 Introduction 03:20 How today's textile collection, sorting and recycling business models work 07:58 A vision for the circular textile system in 2040 10:37 Commercial barriers to scaling textile circularity 14:28 Building demand for recycled fibres 17:02 Sorting technologies and feedstock quality 20:40 How EPR can accelerate textile circularity 23:56 Collaboration across the textile value chain 26:49 When will textile circularity reach commercial scale? 28:24 Closing reflections **About** TOMRA develops sensor-based sorting technologies that improve resource recovery across multiple industries, including recycling, mining and food. Within the textile sector, TOMRA works on automated sorting solutions that enable high-quality fibre recovery and support the transition towards a circular textile value chain. **Further Links** Connect to Louisa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-hoyes/ **One-page Summary** Sign-up for the Circularity.fm Newsletter and get a summary with the take-aways of this episode. Register here: https://circularity.fm/episode/textile-collection-sorting-recycling-the-challenges-we-need-to-overcome/