TexMAt - Automated collection and sorting solution for consumer textil

TexMat aims to strengthen Europe’s position as a frontrunner in sustainable and circular textiles. Today, Europe generates over seven million tonnes of textile waste every year, and most used textiles still end up as household waste, landfilled or incinerated. At the same time, the environmental impact of textile production and consumption continues to grow, while garment lifetimes decrease.
 

New EU measures — including mandatory textile waste collection, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) — create a unique opportunity to accelerate textile circularity. TexMat leverages this policy shift to develop a decentralized and automated collection concept that separates reusable textiles from waste already at the point of return.

The automated collection containers that will be devloped and tested in the project integrate smart technologies to:

• pre-sort and assess the condition of returned textiles,
• gather data on material properties, production year, and circularity journey,
• enable tracking via digital product passports.

By improving collection and sorting efficiency, TexMat will increase textile reuse, reduce CO₂ emissions, and help limit the amount of textiles becoming waste. The project will also provide insights and policy recommendations to support the EU’s climate targets for 2030 and 2050. 

Supported by funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, the expert team of scientists and practitioners will work to:

•  Make textile circularity easy and attractive for consumers
• Boost efficiency for key stakeholders, such as reuse and recycling operators
• Contribute to EU policy discussions, especially on the future of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles

Together, these innovations pave the way for a more resource-efficient, competitive, and circular European textile sector.