Textile Recycler installs automated sorting systems

According to Jackie King, executive director for the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), the international trade association of the for-profit used clothing reuse and recycling industry, for more than 400 years the used clothing and textile recycling industry has relied on manual sorting and grading processes with little to no technological advances.

In 2009 SMART member Textile Recycler, Houston, Texas, installed a patented auto grading system from Smart Innovations to eliminate the manual sorting of recycled clothing, increasing efficiency and productivity, and reducing labor costs. In 2014 Textile Recycler installed an automated shoe sorting system. Using the new systems, the company now diverts more than half a million pounds of clothing and 10,000 pounds of shoes each week from landfills.

Source: SMART