SATCoL’s revolutionary Fibersort technology is working to close the  loop for circular fashion 

SATCoL (the trading arm of The Salvation Army) is delighted to announce the  launch of their new automated, advanced Fibersort clothing and textiles by  fibre type, blend and colour for recycling back into the circular textiles supply  chain. 

Fibersort is a textiles revolution. The automated Materials Recovery Facility  (MRF) reprocesses clothing and other items no longer in a condition that can  be reused. The innovative approach identifies and classifies non-wearable  textile items into grades. It uses an infra-red camera and blows items from a  conveyor belt into bins using air jets. The process separates them into fibres  such as, cotton, polyester and wool.

Simultaneously, Fibersort recognises the  fibre content percentage of each item and sorts specified blends such as  polycotton and wool mixes at a higher level of accuracy than manual sorting. 

Fibersort also sorts fibres by specific or mixed colours categories. 

This fashion forward technology closes the loop for fibre-to-fibre circular  textiles. With the ground-breaking technology and environmental credentials  of the Fibresort project supported by the Government’s Resource Action Fund,  managed by climate action NGO WRAP. 

SATCoL is the largest charity-owned textiles collector in the UK working to  support organisations reduce their carbon footprint. Fibersort, maximises the  potential of charitable textile donations by creating more opportunities for  garments to be repurposed and diverted from landfill in an effort to reduce the  environmental impact of textiles.

The profits received from the resale of the donations is given to The Salvation  Army to support the great work they do throughout the country. 

Kirk Bradley, SATCoL’s Head of Corporate Partnerships, said: “We are thrilled  to be working with this new ground-breaking technology.

“It helps to reduce  waste and more donated garments can be repurposed, resold and raise more  money for vital charity work.” 

Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovation, WRAP, said:  “Donations of unwanted clothing are essential to keep the cycle of clothing  turning and move us towards a more sustainable model of clothing.

“WRAP is  delighted to have been involved in the funding of this brilliant development. By  working with retail partners to providing raw materials from the Fibersort  process for recycling, SATCoL is helping to ‘close the loop’ at a key stage in the  circle economy.” 

To learn more about SATCoL and the work we do visit www.satcol.org

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davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer