Fast fashion is contributing to growing mountains of waste. Rapidly changing fashion trends, cheap manufacturing, and textiles that are difficult to recycle result in 1.6 million tons of collected used clothing per year in Germany. Only a small portion of this is processed. The diversity of materials in used textiles also poses significant challenges for recycling.

The Recycling Atelier at the Institute for Textile Technology Augsburg (ITA) has taken on the task of addressing this issue in the sustainability debate by striving for scientific advancements in the mechanical recycling of textiles. This involves taking a holistic approach to textile recycling rather than optimizing specific subprocesses. The initial sorting of used clothing plays a crucial role in the subsequent recycling process.

Our project aims to support the sorting process. Using artificial intelligence and two high-resolution cameras, we capture and categorize key characteristics of the garments.

You can find more information on the Sichtraum website.

Students:

• Nick Fredel
• Vincent Pusz
• Raphael Frühauf
• Suzan Imhoff
• Tim Stapelberg
• Erika Nguyen
• Adrian Petter
• Anja Zieger