Innovation: in France, unique solutions in the world for textile recycling

On a futuristic-looking machine, a used trainer passes through a tunnel before being delicately gripped by a huge articulated arm which forcefully and precisely tears off its sole: this operation, which seems innocuous, is in fact fundamental for the world of recycling. textile.

The first innovation platform in the world to have managed to carry out this manipulation in an automated way, the Cetia, in Hendaye (south-west), thus opens the way to the remanufacturing of new soles from used ones.

While Europe only knows how to recycle a tiny part of its textiles on an industrial scale (1%), players are mobilizing to structure a sector that is still embryonic, like Cetia, which is developing pioneering solutions in preparation for recycling.

Currently, in Europe, shoes are disassembled manually or simply crushed.

“We filed two patents”, reveals Chloé Salmon Legagneur, director of Cetia. Initially a research chair at the Estia engineering school, Cetia – in partnership with the private research center CETI – is now a company offering innovative prototypes in the field of textile and leather recycling.

Marilou Hargoues, a young engineer, handles a basketball that gave the robot a hard time. “The difficulty is that there is foam” in the sole, the composition of which the manufacturers do not communicate, she comments. This complicates the calibration of the robot.

This project, named Re-shoes, is “essential”, considers Véronique Allaire-Spitzer, director of the Regeneration division of the approved eco-organization Refashion: “until we have a preparation solution (of the material in view of its recycling), we will not have a sector” in France.

The eco-organization is injecting 900,000 euros to finance projects of Cetia, the New Aquitaine Region nearly one million.

– Zips, buttons, rivets –

Currently, a major part of the 1% of recycled textiles in Europe does not make it possible to remanufacture yarn but is transformed into insulation, padding, bitumen…

However, by 2030, the European Union intends to set “a minimum content of recycled fibers in the composition of textiles”, according to the Commission’s website.

The challenge is therefore to arrive at an industrial solution that allows for fairly fine sorting of the material and fairly delicate dismantling to remake clothes with clothes.

An employee places used clothes on a sorting machine at the Cetia site in Hendaye, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, on September 4, 2023 (AFP/GAIZKA IROZ)

The Cetia machine, which recognizes the color and composition of the fabric when two materials are mixed using infrared technology, is thus decisive in preparing for recycling.

The sorted garments pass through another machine which separates “hard points” (zips, buttons, etc.) from the fabric. The material that emerges therefore has a known composition and is more easily reusable.

Further in the hall, another machine with a laser cut avoids damaging the fabric when separating the fabric from the other components. It is of particular interest to the luxury sector, which needs to keep its noble materials intact.

Another, using artificial intelligence, knows how to distinguish a pocket from a collar, a sleeve from a trouser bottom, an essential differentiation when it comes to carrying out a first sorting before recycling.

This state-of-the-art equipment is worth nearly 2 million euros.

“Brands tell us: + I want the material of my products to be recycled in my industry and not in insulation or flooring”, testifies the director of Cetia.

To facilitate recycling, some brands, including Decathlon – one of Cetia’s first supporters – reflect from the design stage “on the number of materials used, the disruptive elements, etc.”, explains Clémence Goubet, footwear sustainable development manager at the sports brand, which is aiming for 100% eco-designed products by 2026.

The issue of recycling is also political: 200,000 tonnes of French textile waste are exported each year, for lack of a national solution, figures Cetia.

“We have a deposit that is there, that we have to treat. Recycling can be a big contribution” to the reindustrialization file in France, underlines Chloé Salmon Legagneur.

© 2023 AFP

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