- Valencia fans leave Singapore with 'stern warning' after protest
- Falling sales cause sour grapes for iconic Portugal wine
- Belgian pathologist and literary star gives 'voice to the dead'
- Ethiopia's 'korale' recyclers turn waste into money
- Italy row, AI in focus at world's biggest book fair
- US, Philippines launch war games a day after China's Taiwan drills
- Scotland lock Gray signs for Japan's Toyota
- Allen and Bills foil Rodgers, outlast Jets 23-20
- North Korea blows up roads connecting it to the South
- East Timor fights new battles 25 years after independence vote
- Japan election campaigns kick off for Oct 27 vote
- Home runs propel Mets, Yankees to MLB playoff victories
- Taiwan detects record 153 Chinese military aircraft after drills
- Oil prices drop on easing fears over Middle East, most markets rise
- Reoxygenating oceans: startups lead the way in Baltic Sea
- North Korea's Kim holds security meeting over drone flights
- Cars, chlamydia threaten Australian koalas
- Small town India's DIY film industry comes to London
- Harris slams Trump over military threat to 'enemy from within'
- Can biodiversity credits unlock billions for nature?
- Texas poised to execute autistic man for 'shaken baby' death
- King Charles III heads to Australia and Commonwealth meeting
- In the Colombian Pacific, fighting to save sharks
- Argentina's Matera banned for Italy Test after red card
- Vientos grand slam propels Mets in series-tying win over Dodgers
- Supporters of ex-Bolivia leader Morales block roads over possible arrest
- Germany into Nations League quarters, France and Italy win
- Nagelsmann lauds 'supercharged' Germany's 'best half of the year'
- 'Pandas are coming': Two new bears depart China for US capital
- Dodgers pitcher Kershaw plans to return for 2025
- Mbappe 'investigated for rape' in Sweden: report
- Revived Italy sweep past Israel in Nations League amid high security
- Trudeau slams India as tensions soar over Sikh separatist's murder
- Harris courts Black voters as Trump makes inroads
- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Nigerian team return home after boycotting AFCON qualifier in Libya
- Nigeria refuse to play in Libya as Algeria, Cameroon qualify
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- Leweling rockets Germany past Dutch and into Nations League quarterfinals
- Kolo Muani double fires France to win in Belgium
- Italy sweep past Israel in Nations League amid high security
- UN peacekeepers to 'stay in all positions' in Lebanon
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- 'Unique' Ronaldo an example to everyone, says Martinez
- New lawsuits against Sean Combs allege sex assault, including of minor
- Italy begins migrant transfers to Albania with first group of 16
- Google signs nuclear power deal with startup Kairos
- Carsley open to foreign England manager amid Guardiola links
- Pogba hungry to have his football cake after doping ban
- India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
The tech to recycle clothes is only just being invented
The vast waste and pollution caused by the fashion industry has made recycling clothes a top priority, but only now are simple tasks like pulling the sole off a shoe being done by machines.
CETIA, a company in the southwest of France is finally offering some mechanical solutions to the challenges of recycling clothes.
Its research team has invented a machine that uses artificial intelligence to scan garments, identify hard elements like zippers and buttons, and use a laser to cut them out.
It has also built a machine that grabs shoes in a large mechanical arm and yanks off the soles.
In a world of space travel and vaccines, that may seem a relatively rudimentary piece of technology, but it had simply never been done before.
"It was a chicken and egg question. No one was recycling soles because we couldn't separate them from the shoe, and no one was separating them because there was no recycling," said Chloe Salmon Legagneur, director of CETIA.
Previously, recyclers had to bake the shoes for many hours to melt the glue and then pull the sole off by hand.
"There's nothing spectacular in what we've done," Legagneur said.
"But we've done it."
For now, barely one percent of textiles in Europe are turned back into new clothes.
Most end up as housing insulation, padding or asphalt for paving roads.
That is because clothes are usually a complex mix of materials that must be separated carefully to keep the fibres in good condition if there is any hope of respinning them into new garments.
Usually done by hand, CETIA says its AI-laser machine can do this at a much faster rate that is rapidly evolving as it perfects the technology.
It also has machines that can sort clothes by colour and composition at a rate of one per second.
- Incentives -
The reason these inventions are finally emerging is that tough new European rules are imminent that will force clothing companies to use a set amount of recycled fibres in their garments.
CETIA's work is backed by big retailers like Decathlon and Zalando who are urgently looking for industrial-scale solutions.
There are also political incentives.
The French government sees the potential for new manufacturing jobs if recycling technology allows it to deal with some of the 200,000 tonnes of textile waste currently being shipped abroad each year.
CETIA's focus is on preparing textiles for reuse. Other companies must now start melting down the separated soles and turning them into new ones.
But it is an important first step.
"As long as we do not have systems to prepare materials for recycling, we will not have a recycling sector in France," said Veronique Allaire-Spitzer, of Refashion, which coordinates waste management.
It injected 900,000 euros into Cetia with a similar contribution from the regional government.
"None of this is a magic idea. It's just common sense," said Legagneur.
"But it's about putting together the engineers and the financing and the companies who need these solutions, and it's only now that these things are coming together. Ten years ago, no one wanted it."
L.Mason--AMWN