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Sustainability & Recycling

Fibersort Brings Textile Recycling Into Fast Lane

• By  Textile Excellence
• March 15, 2026

Fibersort, developed by Belgian machinery maker Valvan, is transforming textile recycling. The machine can sort up to 2,000 garments per hour, separating them by fibre type and colour.

From January 2025, the European EPR Directive mandates separate collection of textiles for recycling. “Sorting is an important first step,” says Maurits Vandeputte, Technical Director at Valvan. “Our clothes are made of many different raw materials, which makes recycling a real challenge.”

Clothing consumption in Europe produces around seven million tonnes of textile waste annually. Burning this fabric is unsustainable, and residual waste disposal will soon be banned across the EU. Belgium is ahead in collection, with about half of discarded textiles collected separately.

Automating sorting
Valvan began automating textile logistics seven years ago. “Sorting centres made money mainly from clothes they could resell,” explains Maurits. “But online platforms like Vinted and cheap imports have increased the residual fraction. Pressure is high, and traditional sorting methods can’t keep up.”

With artificial intelligence, Fibersort scans each garment with three cameras. A 3D camera measures size, an RGB camera identifies colour, and an infrared camera detects fibre type. The machine then sorts items into categories like blue cotton or red nylon. “The machine is modular: we can add as many categories as the customer wants,” says Maurits.

Piece-by-piece processing
Processing individual garments posed another challenge. Clothes vary in shape and size, and multiple items can get stuck together. Valvan partnered with Siemens to develop a custom kinematics solution using a delta picker and robotic arm. “The delta picker handles long pieces, and the robotic arm separates doubles,” says Maurits. “We now achieve 1.8 seconds per garment, around 2,000 per hour. Much faster than humans.”

Plug-and-play design
“Valvan asks a lot of us, which keeps us on our toes,” laughs Nick Vanden Broecke, Head of OEM Sales at Siemens. “We validated all kinematics and controllers. Cycle times are short, so the system had to be powerful.”

Maurits adds: “Fibersort is plug-and-play. Customers just connect it, and it works. New features are backward compatible. Our AI sends commands to the controller via MQTT or OPC UA, and the hardware keeps up. We’re even exploring capturing garments on the fly to save another 0.3 seconds per piece.”

The future of recycling
Thanks to the Valvan-Siemens partnership, innovation is rapid. Half of Valvan’s turnover now comes from advanced recycling solutions. In addition to Fibersort, the company developed Trimclean, which removes buttons and labels from fabrics.

Maurits concludes: “The future is fully automated. We need to spare people dirty, repetitive work while keeping valuable resources in Europe. We’ve shown that even in a tough market, recycling can create value—for our company, our customers, and society.”

“Fibersort is plug-and-play. Customers just connect it, and it works. New features are backward compatible. Our AI sends commands to the controller via MQTT or OPC UA, and the hardware keeps up. We’re even exploring capturing garments on the fly to save another 0.3 seconds per piece.”