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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Tian Macleod Ji

AI machine sorts clothes faster than humans to boost textile recycling in China

China Recycling Textiles - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

In an industrial park in Zhangjiagang, a small city on China's east coast, a large humming and hissing machine feeds on piles of used clothes and sorts them.

The novelty? It uses artificial intelligence to sort them by composition at high speed, offering a glimpse into how AI could play a role in reducing the impact of synthetic textile waste.

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