UK Fashion and Textiles (UKFT) is leading a £4 million project with partners like Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Pangaia, and New Look to divert large quantities of waste textiles from landfills.
The initiative, called Autosort for Circular Textiles Demonstrator (ACT UK), focuses on developing an automated sorting and pre-processing facility for waste textiles over a two-year period. The consortium includes recycling technologies, textile collectors/sorters, academia, manufacturers, industry associations, technologists, and renowned brands/retailers. Funding is provided by the Circular Fashion Programme, supported by Innovate UK, AHRC, and NERC under UKRI. Project partners involve IBM, Reskinned, Salvation Army, Oxfam, and others.
ACT UK aims to overcome current challenges in achieving circularity by integrating advanced technologies such as optical scanning, robotics, AI, and size reduction equipment in a single facility.
UKFT aims to create a model for large-scale sorting and preparation of non-reusable textiles, potentially preventing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of materials from reaching landfills and supplying resources to the UK textile manufacturing sector. Brands, retailers, and stakeholders are encouraged to participate.
