Spain launches pilot program for used clothing collection with “reward systems”

Europe is making further progress towards its sustainability goals. This also applies to the management and recycling of textile waste. This effort will also fund the development of an innovative pilot program for used clothing collection in Spain that provides “rewards” for consumers. This initiative is intended not only to accelerate the achievement of strategic goals, but also ultimately to anchor the circular model and second-hand solutions in the consumption behavior of European citizens.

The experimental initiative is part of the development phase of the new TexMat project, funded by the European Union (EU) Horizon Europe program. The Community institutions have provided the project with funding totaling around 6.76 million euros. It officially started on October 1, 2025 and runs until March 31, 2029. It is led by the Finnish Technical Research Center VTT, which works with 14 partners from seven EU countries.

As part of the TexMat project, two pilot tests for automated used clothing collection systems will be carried out, one in Finland and one in Spain. What is new is that these initiatives are accompanied by “reward systems” for consumers. The EU expects this to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable and circular textile economy.

These “rewards” give European citizens an additional incentive to tackle the problem of textile waste in the EU. Based on the results of the pilot testing, various options for scaling these automated reward collection systems are analyzed.

Involving “partners from across the European textile industry value chain,” the TexMat program aims to “develop new business models, hardware and software technologies and policy instruments to involve consumers in the separate collection of textile waste and promote the reuse of textiles,” explained the European Commission. In the long term, the project is also intended to “accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and consumer-focused circular economy for textiles”. This will “help achieve the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050, in line with the European Green Deal”. These achievements, it is emphasized, would not only contribute to creating a “more favorable environment for European consumers” but also “promote industrial sustainability, competitiveness and resource independence in Europe”.

Automated used clothing containers “with a bonus”

A strategic lever for achieving these ambitious goals is the new pilot program for the collection of textile waste, on which the efforts of all actors involved in the TexMat program are focused. The initiative consists of setting up new, state-of-the-art automated used clothing containers in public spaces.

In Spain, several partners are involved in the pilot: the University of Coruña, which leads research on sustainable business models, the social economy organization Humana Fundación Pueblo para Pueblo, a pioneer in Spanish textile waste management, and the Spanish technology companies IRIS Technology Solutions and Rovimatica. IRIS Technology Solutions will contribute the digital solutions and software for the collection and sorting of the textiles, while Rovimatica will develop the application of the TexMat program and the “smart” container.

As these four Spanish actors have explained, they will be involved in developing the basis for this pilot over the next three years. For this purpose, “intelligent and automated” containers are being developed and made available to citizens. These will have integrated technology to pre-sort the items thrown in.

The quality of the garment submitted is assessed in an automatic process. Based on this, a corresponding “remuneration” is generated for participation in the collection system. This bonus is intended to encourage the active participation of European consumers.

So far, only a few details have been announced. However, the European Commission has already indicated that these new collection solutions will offer consumers a financial incentive. This is done by implementing “new reimbursement systems linked to the second-hand markets”. They are intended to “create profitable business opportunities to extend the life cycle of textile products” and “promote the specific extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems in the textile sector”.

“Through automated collection and sorting, the TexMat solution directly contributes to the development of the future digital product passport. It paves the way for a successful system of extended producer responsibility for textiles,” explained Ece Şanlı, Head of Circular Economy Department at Humana. “At the same time, it rewards citizens for responsible decisions and promotes greater participation in a textile circular economy.” All of this is part of a program with which “the EU is redefining the future of textile sustainability”. It comes at a time when “the recycling of used textiles is more urgent than ever before”.

“This initiative has great potential to transform the collection and resale of used clothing,” emphasized Elina Ilén, the coordinator of the TexMat project at the Finnish Technical Research Center VTT. “At the same time, it supports the second-hand market and enables consumers to monetize their donations.” Developing a “cost-effective and user-friendly solution” would “relieve consumers of the need” to decide for themselves “which garments are destined for resale or recycling.” This paves the way for better management of textile waste.

In addition, “automated collection and sorting” also supports the operators of textile waste management plants: “They can quickly and precisely separate reusable clothing items from those that need to be disposed of, reducing the dependence on manual labor.” This optimization is intended to accelerate all processes related to the necessary treatment and management of textile waste.