A recycling plant has been developed in China that uses artificial intelligence to quickly and automatically analyze textile waste according to material composition. The “Fastsort Textile” machine was developed by Chinese company DataBeyond and named one of the best inventions of 2025 by The Times Magazine.
The system combines a conveyor belt system with an AI scanner approximately five by two meters in size. The material composition of each individual item of clothing is analyzed there in less than a second and the results are displayed live. The system then automatically sorts the textiles according to fiber types such as polyester or nylon and forwards them to the appropriate recycling streams. Parts that do not meet defined quality criteria are sorted out. Up to now, up to 50 percent of the textiles processed were considered non-recyclable and were disposed of or incinerated. With the Fastsort Textile machine, this proportion is said to have fallen to 30 percent.
The machine achieves a high level of efficiency: around 100 kilograms of clothing are sorted in two to three minutes, a total of up to two tons per hour. This is significantly faster and more precise than manual sorting, as is currently the case. The Fastsort machine should also be able to sort by details, such as colors and neckline types for T-shirts, and sorts out impurities such as sequins, buttons and zippers from shredded textiles.
The machine is located in an industrial park in Zhangjiagang, a small city on the east coast of China. DataBeyond is a Chinese technology company that was founded in 2018 and now operates worldwide. It specializes in AI-supported sorting solutions for recycling processes. The European branch is in Italy.
The company particularly develops optical and AI-based sorting systems for various waste streams such as plastics and textiles and is one of the leading providers of such technologies in China. The company’s goal is to make recycling processes more efficient through automation and to advance the transition to a more digitalized circular economy.
