International technology group Andritz has entered an ambitious partnership with Pellenc ST and Nouvelles Fibres Textiles to set up the very first industrial-scale automatic textile sorting line in France combining automated sorting and recycling technology.

The partners have expert knowledge from decades of experience in sorting technologies (Pellenc ST), textile machinery and processes (Andritz), as well as post-consumer textile value chains from sorting to manufacturing (Nouvelles Fibres Textiles newly founded by Les Tissages de Charlieu and Synergies TLC). 

The new textile sorting line being built is the first to combine Pellenc ST's automated sorting technologies with Andritz’s recycling technologies. It will process post-consumer textile wastes to produce recycled fibre engineered for the spinning, nonwoven and composite industries. Starting operations in mid-2023, it will serve as a production line for Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, as an R&D line for the three partners, and as a test and demonstration center for their customers.

Nouvelles Fibres Textiles aims to become a reference in both industrial grade material production and industrial scale post-consumer textile sorting, thanks to innovative technologies with hard point removal providing pure fibres, selective colours, and differentiated fibre types, the company said in a press release.

Nouvelles Fibres Textiles’ partners also work closely together in R&D at the Andritz Laroche and Pellenc ST technical centres to keep pushing technical boundaries. 

“We are very proud to announce the launch of the Nouvelles Fibres Textiles partnership. Several years of R&D involving key players from both textile and household waste management industries made this possible. We all shared our knowledge and expertise to promote on-the-ground circularity for textiles by full integration of the value chain. This guarantees traceability of recycled materials, mitigates the textile and composites industries’ environmental impacts and reduces their carbon footprint while creating meaningful jobs,” Eric Boël, president, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, said.