AI’s role in textile recycling and feedstock ID

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Strong turnout in Charlotte underscored growing US momentum on textile circularity, as speakers and attendees pointed to AI technology, sorting, standards and shared data as key barriers to scale up textile to textile recycling. Mike Cole takes a deep dive into the inaugural US event. 

Kelly Drennan from Fashion Takes Action
Kelly Drennan, executive director of Fashion Takes Action, spoke on the mechanics beneath textile circularity.

The debut Textiles Recycling Expo USA, held recently in Charlotte, North Carolina, drew an impressive turnout for an event focused on one of the niche corners of the global textile and apparel supply chain. But also one of the most talked about.

The broader story was not simply that AI is arriving in textile recycling, but that the US is trying to build the connective tissue of a circular textile system as volumes, policy pressure and commercial expectations rise
Europe remained a reference point through EPR discussions, bans on destruction of unsold textiles and more mature policy momentum, but the event suggested the US is no longer standing still.

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