New AI capabilities deepen textile characterization beyond fiber identification to improve routing, recovery economics, and regulatory readiness.
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Sortile today announced the successful completion of the first prototype of its next-generation textile intelligence platform, introducing new artificial intelligence capabilities designed to help recyclers and sorters understand not only what a textile is made of, but how it was constructed and how that information can improve downstream recovery decisions.
The announcement comes as the global textile industry enters a new phase of circularity. Across Europe and a growing number of U.S. states, regulations, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs and Digital Product Passport (DPP) frameworks, are rapidly increasing the volume of textiles entering recovery systems.
For decades, textile sorting has focused primarily on identifying fiber composition. As circular supply chains mature, recyclers and sorters increasingly need deeper insight into construction, quality, and processing characteristics that determine how materials should be recovered. Not simply what they are made of.
Building on its work with current and prospective clients across North America and Europe, Sortile is expanding pilot deployments of its next-generation platform ahead of broader commercial rollout in Q4 of 2026.
The new platform combines microscopic imaging, advanced machine vision, and artificial intelligence to deliver textile characterization in real time. Automated focusing and AI inference occur in less than two seconds, complementing Sortile's NIR-based fiber identification, which operates in under one second at over 95% accuracy and meets the feedstock requirements of both chemical and mechanical recyclers. The result is advanced material analysis without disrupting existing sorting operations or requiring capital-intensive infrastructure upgrades.
"The industry has made tremendous progress identifying fiber composition," said Constanza Gómez, Co-Founder and CEO of Sortile. "The next frontier is understanding textile construction and quality at a deeper level, because those characteristics increasingly determine where a garment should go, whether to resale, fiber-to-fiber recycling, or mechanical recovery, and ultimately the value that can be recovered."
While Sortile's platform already captures fiber composition and color, the new microscopy capabilities extend that analysis to a level of fidelity conventional spectroscopy systems cannot reach. Initial validation demonstrates the ability to distinguish construction characteristics, including knit, woven, and non-woven fabrics, that can materially influence downstream economics. By identifying these characteristics earlier in the sorting process, the platform can help improve the quality of the resulting feedstock and, in turn, the quality of the recycled yarn and the yield recyclers are able to achieve from it. For example, in some mechanical recycling applications, where processes are tuned to specific fabric constructions, cotton knits can sell at premiums of more than 50% over comparable cotton wovens.
The platform also establishes the technical foundation for Sortile's continuously evolving software platform and proprietary models, which can distinguish premium natural fibers whose microscopic characteristics remain difficult to identify using conventional spectroscopy systems alone. One example is differentiating cashmere from conventional wool, materials that are frequently grouped together when using current sorting technology despite significant differences in market value and downstream processing potential.
Every item analyzed on the platform generates a traceable, item-level data record, supporting the quality control, supplier validation, and compliance reporting that brands and regulators increasingly require as DPP and EPR frameworks take effect.
By combining advanced imaging with machine learning, Sortile is building a software platform that helps recyclers, sorters, brands, and circular supply chain operators make higher-value decisions from every textile entering the recovery stream.
"As regulations reshape the economics of textile recovery, intelligence becomes just as important as automation," added Agustina Mir, Co-Founder and COO of Sortile. "The organizations that lead the next decade of circularity will be the ones that transform textile data into better routing decisions, stronger recovery economics, and more resilient circular supply chains."
About Sortile
Founded in 2021, Sortile is a material intelligence company that develops AI-powered solutions enabling recyclers, sorters, brands, and circular supply chain partners to identify, characterize, and optimize post-consumer textiles for higher-value recovery. Combining NIR spectroscopy and advanced machine vision with artificial intelligence, Sortile is building the intelligence layer for textile circularity, helping the industry recover more value from every garment while supporting the transition toward a more transparent, efficient, and circular textile economy.
Sortile is backed by Level Up Ventures and other strategic investors.
For more information, please visit sortile.co
Media Contact
Constanza Gomez, Sortile, 1 9545446127, [email protected], www.sortile.co
SOURCE Sortile
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