Revolutionising textile recycling efficiency in the UK

Reverse Resources is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that matches textile waste with recycling solutions, enabling companies operating in the industry to plan and oversee end-to-end textile flows—from the source of the waste to its eventual recycling. 

Specifically, it has created a traceability tool that helps textile recyclers to source their feedstock (recyclable textile waste) more efficiently, track shipments of textile waste and digitally monitor inventory.   

Introduction

Collaborating with iinouiio, a textile recycler, and LaundRe, a sustainable denim refinishing hub, Reverse Resources found that both SMEs faced challenges in systematically planning their feedstock supply, with iinouiio in particular, struggling with the insufficient traceability of supply chain waste and no indication of the colours available, impacting their ability to plan production effectively.

Delivering industry solutions alongside partners

With funding from Digital Catapult through the Digital Supply Chain Hub programme, Reverse Resources embarked on extensive research into the UK textile industry, focusing on post-industrial textile waste issues and evaluating business cases for textile-to-textile recycling.

The Digital Supply Chain Hub programme provided Reverse Resources the opportunity to join forces with iinouiio and LaundRe, and spend time with a range of industry stakeholders, so that they could better understand the challenges being faced by SMEs. This direct engagement revealed that the problems faced by SMEs were often unique to each business.

Nevertheless, Reverse Resources aimed to create a universal textile solution applicable to as many UK textile industry stakeholders as possible. By using the industry challenges identified through the research as a foundation, Reverse Resources was able to enhance its software, adding new functionalities to simplify the sourcing of feedstock for SMEs and reduce the risk of receiving unsuitable or low-quality materials.

Challenges and successes

During its market research, Reverse Resources faced several obstacles, including a lack of data on current textile waste flows in the UK, manufacturers’ reluctance to complete online questionnaires, and difficulties in finding sustainable business cases for textile waste. Additionally, there was a lack of consensus on terminology, with waste handlers often identifying as recyclers.

Despite these challenges, Reverse Resources, with the support of stakeholders within iinouiio and LaundRe’s supply chains, was able to conceptualise four new improvements to their solution, fully developing and coding one as a fully-functional update. 

Reverse Resources estimates that up to a 50% decrease in time spent on material search, can be realised by using digitised stock of textile waste, an invaluable amount of time for SMEs to assign to other areas. Thanks to Reverse Resource’s ability to improve verification and traceability of recycled products, iinouiio also has four new potential customers, all made possible with the research and product development time made available to Reverse Resources through the Digital Supply Chain Hub programme.

Next steps

To build a comprehensive textile solution, Reverse Resources will continuously improve the software, especially its matchmaking capabilities between waste suppliers and recyclers. The company aims to work more closely with SMEs by inviting more recyclers on to the platform, while also looking at increasing the efficiency and quality of output for SME textile recyclers across Europe.

By the end of this development cycle, Reverse Resources aims to have fully implemented its conceptual ideas, further advancing the efficiency and sustainability of textile recycling in the UK.

Laura Sophia Stephen, project team member at Reverse Resources said -

“Digital Catapult has been an essential partner in the successful development of our new document/image upload functionality on the Reverse Resources platform. Their support in fostering collaboration and providing both technical and practical supervision throughout the project, was invaluable. By working closely with both Digital Catapult and the textile recycler iinouiio, we were able to create a feature that not only streamlines the management of critical documents for waste transactions between recyclers, manufacturers, and waste handlers but also significantly enhances the traceability and transparency of the textile recycling supply chain. Digital Catapult’s guidance was instrumental in developing a solution that truly meets the needs of SMEs in the UK and across Europe, while also unlocking new opportunities in our key market in Asia.”