A major European initiative is underway to reshape how used clothing and household textiles are collected, reused, and recycled.
The TexMat project, backed by €6m in funding from the EU, aims to create a scalable deposit return scheme for post-consumer textiles across Europe.
The initiative is designed to increase textile collection rates, support reuse and recycling, and reduce the growing environmental impact of discarded clothing.
Elina Ilén, TexMat Project Leader at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, explained: “The TexMat solution has great potential to transform the collection and resale of used but still valuable garments, supporting second-hand markets while enabling consumers to monetise their textiles.”
Reinventing textile collection through incentives
At the heart of TexMat is a deposit return scheme that rewards people for returning unwanted but reusable or recyclable textiles.
By attaching a financial incentive to discarded garments, the project seeks to boost collection rates while reducing the volume of textiles sent to landfill or incineration.
The system also alerts producers when returned items require formal waste management, helping to meet upcoming EU environmental obligations.
Smart containers and digital product passports
The deposit return scheme relies on automated collection containers equipped with advanced sorting technology.
These units assess the quality of returned items and identify material composition using digital product passports.
Digital product passports, expected to become standard across the EU, store detailed information about how a garment was made, enabling faster decisions on reuse, resale, or recycling.
By automating sorting and data capture, the system reduces reliance on manual labour and improves accuracy across the textile recovery process.
Items suitable for second-hand markets can be separated efficiently, while damaged or low-quality textiles are directed to appropriate recycling or disposal routes.
EU funding and real-world trials
TexMat is supported by a €6m investment from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
To test the deposit return scheme in practice, pilot projects will be rolled out in Finland and Spain, allowing partners to assess consumer participation, technical performance, and operational scalability.
A pan-European collaboration
Running until March 2029, the initiative brings together 14 partners from seven EU countries, spanning research institutions, universities, and industry players across the full textile value chain.
Estonian firm Protex Balti is contributing expertise on embedding digital product passports into garments, while companies in Spain and Italy are jointly developing the smart collection containers and associated digital infrastructure.
As the EU tightens regulations around textile waste, TexMat’s deposit return scheme could provide a scalable model for sustainable textile management across Europe.
