Spotlight: Recycling Crisis

Inside Cetia’s Breakthroughs in Shoe Dismantling and Textile Sorting Technologies

As circularity becomes central to the textile industry, French recycling innovator Cetia is streamlining disassembly and sorting through cutting-edge automation. Leading this transformation is Director Chloé Salmon Legagneur, whose team is developing intelligent systems that dismantle shoes, sort garments, and prepare materials for high-quality recycling—critical for scaling circular solutions across both footwear and fashion supply chains.

Long Story, Cut Short
  • Cetia’s automated shoe dismantling systems and textile sorting lines are designed to maximise recovery efficiency and material purity.
  • The company uses high-speed sorting technologies and AI-powered cutting tools to handle complex textile and footwear products.
  • Backed by strategic partners and regional support, Cetia is scaling its modular recycling solutions for broader industry adoption.
Cetia can sort the garments by composition and colour to obtain a homogeneous deposit for processing, and then run this deposit through its automated unravelling line. This line enables mechanical unravelling. Another approach is to consider “intelligent” dismantling to deconstruct a garment. It is currently developing an intelligent dismantling line to separate the various textile fabrics from elements such as buttons, zips, etc., so that each element can be recycled in its proper recycling route.
unravelling lines Cetia can sort the garments by composition and colour to obtain a homogeneous deposit for processing, and then run this deposit through its automated unravelling line. This line enables mechanical unravelling. Another approach is to consider “intelligent” dismantling to deconstruct a garment. It is currently developing an intelligent dismantling line to separate the various textile fabrics from elements such as buttons, zips, etc., so that each element can be recycled in its proper recycling route. Cetia

texfash: Cetia has developed proprietary systems capable of automatically separating and sorting up to 120 shoes per hour. Given the complexity of footwear construction, especially with glued, sewn, injected, and vulcanized soles, what were the primary technical challenges in developing this technology, and how does it compare in efficiency and accuracy to manual disassembly methods?
Chloé Salmon Legagneur: Generally speaking, glued shoes are processed on our tear-off line, which includes an oven to heat and reactivate the glue on the shoes and a robot to exert a tearing force to separate the sole from the upper (the upper part of the shoe). The rates quoted above are an average and vary according to the dismantling recipes (temperature, heating time, robot speed, etc.). Our line is an industrial pilot that enables us to refine the dismantling recipes before processing larger volumes.

Depending, for example, on the type of assembly, the type of glue and the materials making up the shoe, we can have different recipes. All the tests we have carried out with shoe brands have enabled us to refine these recipes according to these specificities. Given the diversity of models and the need to standardise dismantling parameters, upstream sorting offers a clear advantage. To this end, we have developed the IDSHOES solution, which enables shoes to be identified and sorted by type, brand and, where applicable, model if entered in our database. This gives us greater control over the batches processed on this line.

Our aim is to transfer this industrial solution to players wishing to target this type of solution, with the possibility of resizing the heating and stripping system according to the specifications required.

We also have a water-jet cutting line, enabling us to separate the sole from the upper, for heavily stitched or injected shoes. Two high-pressure water-jet heads enable us to make precise cuts. Different cutting modes can be used, either a predefined trajectory (offset), or a trajectory drawn by the operator with a stylus, or a trajectory defined automatically by a vision system coupled with AI. Cutting is precise and efficient, but we recover less material from the sole, compared with tearing off glued shoes.

The integration of the Valvan Fibresort machine allows Cetia to sort textiles by composition and colour at a rate of one garment per second. How does this high-speed sorting impact the quality and purity of recycled fibres, and what measures are in place to handle garments with mixed or unknown fibre compositions?
Chloé Salmon Legagneur: The machine is designed to provide reliable composition prediction at these speeds. To detect the composition, Valvan uses a NIR sensor that takes several local measurements as the garment passes through. This solution offers us modularity in terms of sorting recipes (settings for the desired compositions) and flexibility in the allocation of sorting bins (up to 10 sorting bins in the version present at Cetia). This machine processes single and multi-material garments, giving details of the percentages of materials detected.

These sorting rates make it possible to define pools of qualified, homogenous materials that can be fed to the rest of the recovery chain, such as mechanical recyclers.

Other manufacturers, such as PELLENC, PICVISA and TOMRA, to name but a few, also offer detection and sorting solutions for managing large textile flows.

We also have a multi-sensor line (SENSOR HUB, developed by Cetia and financed by the Refashion eco-organization), integrating various technologies including a NIR sensor, various cameras such as a hyperspectral camera, and a non-destructive X-ray inspection technology. These tools enable us to carry out a complete analysis of the items being processed, and to offer tailor-made solutions to meet specific needs.

Cetia's dismantling process involves deconstructing products to separate materials for recycling. Considering the diversity of textile products and the presence of non-textile components like zippers, buttons, and trims, how does Cetia's system identify and handle these elements to ensure the purity of recycled materials?

Chloé Salmon Legagneur: There are two aspects here.

  1. We can sort the garments by composition and colour to obtain a homogeneous deposit for processing, and then run this deposit through our automated unravelling line. This line enables mechanical unravelling, i.e. large rollers equipped with spikes scrape the textile material to remove more rigid elements such as buttons and zips. These denser elements are then automatically removed from the flow, leaving a bale of pre-frayed fibres that can be fed into a mechanical recycling line. The combination of detection/sorting and automated unravelling enables us to obtain high quality fibres for recyclers.
  2. Another approach is to consider “intelligent” dismantling to deconstruct a garment. We are currently developing an intelligent dismantling line to separate the various textile fabrics from elements such as buttons, zips, etc., so that each element can be recycled in its proper recycling route.

The preparation phase at Cetia enables materials to be processed by recovery centers. What specific treatments or modifications are applied during this phase to enhance the recyclability of textiles, and how do these processes align with the requirements of downstream recycling facilities?

Chloé Salmon Legagneur: Downstream recycling facilities may have different requirements in terms of composition, tolerance to the presence of other materials, length of fibres entering their processes, or particle sizes. This applies to both garments and footwear. Automated removal of hard spots can also be considered a preparation step. We start with an input material and adapt to the specifications of the downstream process to prepare the material as required.

Chloé Salmon Legagneur
Chloé Salmon Legagneur
Director
Cetia

Downstream recycling facilities may have different requirements in terms of composition, tolerance to the presence of other materials, length of fibres entering their processes, or particle sizes. This applies to both garments and footwear. Automated removal of hard spots can also be considered a preparation step.

Cetia remains free to build its own innovation roadmap. As far as scaling up solutions is concerned, it is currently working on deploying them so that the industry can benefit more widely from our technological bricks and pilots.
Innovations at play Cetia remains free to build its own innovation roadmap. As far as scaling up solutions is concerned, it is currently working on deploying them so that the industry can benefit more widely from our technological bricks and pilots. Cetia

Cetia's operations are supported by partnerships with entities like the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and organizations such as ESTIA and CETI. How do these collaborations influence Cetia's research and development priorities, and what role do they play in scaling up recycling technologies for broader industry adoption?
Chloé Salmon Legagneur: ESTIA (engineering school) and CETI (Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants - European Centre for Innovative Textiles) are more than privileged partners, they are Cetia shareholders. So, we have strong links and collaborate on a variety of subjects.

The Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine has also provided strong support for the acquisition of textile and footwear-related equipment, and we are very grateful for their contribution.

Cetia remains free to build its own innovation roadmap. As far as scaling up our solutions is concerned, we are currently working on deploying them so that the industry can benefit more widely from our technological bricks and pilots.

With the increasing emphasis on circular economy principles, how does Cetia ensure that its recycling technologies not only process waste efficiently but also contribute to the creation of high-quality recycled materials suitable for use in new textile products, thereby closing the loop in the textile value chain?
Chloé Salmon Legagneur: On this point, we are privileged to work with CETI, which is fully involved in this area. Our teams are in direct contact with CETI's teams, whether on customer or in-house projects, to guarantee the creation of high-quality recycled materials.

Our aim is to transfer this industrial solution to players wishing to target this type of solution, with the possibility of resizing the heating and stripping system according to the specifications required.

 

Subir Ghosh

SUBIR GHOSH is a Kolkata-based independent journalist-writer-researcher who writes about environment, corruption, crony capitalism, conflict, wildlife, and cinema. He is the author of two books, and has co-authored two more with others. He writes, edits, reports and designs. He is also a professionally trained and qualified photographer.

 
 
 
  • Dated posted 5 June 2025
  • Last modified 5 June 2025