CRTX - Revolutionising Circular Textile Sorting

AI x OPTICS x CIRCULARITY

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THE CHALLENGE

Garments produced per Year

100 Billion

CO2 Emissions per Year

1.3 Billion Tons

Textiles recycled

Less Than 1%

The Challenge

Today, less than 1% of the resources used are reused for new textiles after the use phase. The insufficient precision of material classification of textiles prevents high quality recycling such as fiber-to-fiber processes that would allow to recover yarn of the same quality. At the same time second hand markets become more and more saturated so that wearable clothing is downcycled instead of being reused. More target-group specific sorting of wearable clothes could revolutionize the second hand textile industry and can enable sorters to find new purpose in pre-loved items.

Our Vision

We envision a world where each product and material is circulated endlessly and always kept at its highest value. We create the methods and systems to give back an identity to garments and materials for a sustainable and circular future of textile sorting.

Copyright: BMU.de 2020

OUR MISSION

CRTX combines AI and state-of-the art spectroscopy to go new routes in intelligent textile sorting. We want to provide the missing links for a circular textile material flow to pave the way for a sustainable fashion industry. Combining the analytical and transformative power of raman spectroscopy and computer vision we develop methods that allow garments to find their optimal channel for reuse or recycling. This can be either a fiber-to-fibre recycling process or a second-hand platform tailored to specific customer groups.

Our Approach

CRTX is a collaborative research project that explores AI powered solutions based on the combination of raman spectroscopy and computer vision. We develop methods that empower textile sorters to identify garments and their materials to find their optimal channel for reuse or recycling. This can be either a fiber-to-fibre recycling process or a second-hand platform tailored to specific customer groups.

Intelligent textile sorting

How it works

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precise and fast

Textile spectroscopy


Material detection

Sorting for fibre recycling: Using high-speed raman spectroscopy we want to deliver material analysis for highly precise recycling feedstock

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data-driven approach

AI methods


Product classification

Sorting for second hand use: With AI backed computer vision we classify product types to find the optimal target group and client for reusable garment to give more garments a second life

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Phasing out hazardous substances

Chemicals database


Clean feedstock

Our high resolution spectroscopy is trained to find textiles containing hazardous substances to take these garments out of the loop

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helping sorters with

Sorting Recommendations


Trend based sorting

We watch the first hand fashion markets to identify trends and help the second hand retailers to react immediately to customer demands.