Waste2Fashion is exploring how near-infrared light can help sorting teams distinguish textiles that look alike. Clearer information about their materials could support more precise classification and help identify suitable recycling routes and potential uses for recovered textiles.
Two shirts can look alike and still be made from different materials. For teams sorting used clothing, that difference matters: the material helps determine how each garment can be treated and recycled.
Waste2Fashion is exploring optical technologies for its textile-sorting pilots to help teams make that distinction. Near-infrared light offers a way to gather information about a fabric beyond what its appearance can reveal.
From reflected light to a material clue
Near-infrared light lies just beyond the range our eyes can see. When it reaches a textile, the material absorbs some wavelengths and reflects others. A sensor measures the light that returns, recording a pattern of stronger and weaker reflections.
The system compares that pattern with reference readings from known textiles. Like recognising a song from a short sequence of notes, it looks for a familiar pattern. A close match can help it suggest a material category for the surface being scanned.
A visible-light camera provides a different kind of information, such as colour and the outline of a garment. Near-infrared sensing adds clues about the material itself. Used together, these sources of information can help distinguish textiles whose visible features are similar.
Understanding the reading
The usefulness of a match depends on the reference patterns and the conditions in which the reading is taken. The comparison needs to be relevant to the textiles being handled, and its performance needs to be checked under real operating conditions.
The surface also matters. A jacket may have an outer fabric, a lining and a filling made from different materials. A reading of the outside cannot establish the composition of all three. Interpreting the signal alongside other information helps a team decide whether an item needs further assessment.
Helping sorting teams choose the next step
Consider two similar-looking shirts with unreadable labels. Their reflected-light patterns could point to different material categories, giving a sorting team a basis for separating them for further assessment. The benefit is practical: more information about the textile before it is assigned to a treatment route.
This is the role Waste2Fashion aims to explore, which covers post-consumer textile collection, sorting and treatment. Its five locally adapted pilots are intended to improve material classification and preparation for recycling. Technology choices are being assessed against the needs and material flows of each host.
For people handling used garments, an optical reading could complement a label and their assessment of garment condition. More consistent identification could also help keep material categories separate. Recyclers could then assess whether a batch is suitable for mechanical recycling, such as opening or shredding textiles into fibres, or for preparing material to make panels.
Connecting identification with new uses
That information matters beyond the sorting station. A recycler needs to assess what can be processed; a designer or business considering recovered textiles needs to assess what can be made from them. Better identification could help inform both decisions, alongside the requirements of the intended use.
Waste2Fashion connects these stages, focused on waste prevention and revalorisation. Its planned Eco-design Fashion Academy aims to help designers reduce waste at the design stage. The Circular Acceleration Lab is intended to support businesses using recycled textiles, including suitable materials recovered through the pilots.
By linking material identification with recycling and potential new applications, Waste2Fashion aims to help organisations across the Mediterranean make more informed choices about used textiles. The value of the technology lies in how its information can help people find a suitable next use for those materials.
Last Update
14/10/2026
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