The world's first automated textile sorting system on an industrial scale is being built by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute together with 20 partners. The system, in which various types of textile can be identified with optical sensors, is due to go into operation in summer 2020 next to an existing recycling center in Malmö in southern Sweden.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) known as trash or garbage consists of food waste, paper, cardboard, plastics, PET, glass, textiles, metals, wood and leather, nappies, slug, ash, etc. are arising from human and animal activities. The rapid development and urbanization of China have resulted in an increasing volume of MSW. So the problem of MSW management has become a major social problem, but one the other hand, because of their intrinsic properties, MSW are often reusable and may be considered a resource for energy recovery. The delivering quantity of household waste averages 179 million tons in China, and the amount of untreated MSW over the years has reached 7 billion tons.