Simon Smedinga: “Design for circularity/sustainability. Producers becoming responsible for design and discarding. So the front matches the end of the chain. Designers should be more mindful of the materials they use. Design for recycling. That excludes certain materials. You need to take into account: reusable as a garment but also as material.”

Jorik Boer: “More information for consumers would be good to understand what sorters do. That makes them better recyclers.”

Mert Ozturk: “A trade ban, forbidding unsorted items to leave the EU, would help. Secondly, some sort of subsidy from the EPR fund, because we can’t have a business case in the long run without help. Because costs are rising and quality of feedstock is decreasing.”

Jan-Maarten Zeldenrust: “Right now we believe in automated sorting. It’ll do a better job than people can in terms of identifying material compositions. New technologies need perfect feedstock material compositions. 100% cotton for instance. Automated sorting can identify this perfectly, people cannot.”

Rotterdam has the opportunity to become a raw material supplier of a circular textile industry

Podcast Resetting Fashion unravels the complex textile chain by talking to four large textile sorters in the Rijnmond region and chain expert Hilde van Duijn.