Avery Dennison’s RFID Pilot Speeds Garment Sorting in Europe
06 August 2026: Avery Dennison and textile collection and sorting company Texaid have tested RFID garment sorting in a European pilot that reported faster processing and high identification accuracy. The trials were conducted at Valvan’s Sorting Lab in Menen, Belgium.
The pilot combined Avery Dennison RFID labels and scanning equipment with Valvan’s Fibersort system. It used 300 selected garments, each carrying a unique RFID tag, while Texaid supplied a database covering different product types and material compositions.
According to Avery Dennison’s case study, the automated system identified garments at a rate of one item per second, or 60 garments per minute. The company compared this with about 22 garments per minute for one manual sorter, making the pilot system nearly three times faster. Identification accuracy reached up to 99.9%, including tests involving black garments and mixed-fibre products.
The system read data from RFID tags as garments moved through the sorting line. This reduced dependence on manual visual checks for details such as brand, colour and garment type. Avery Dennison said the resulting digital trail could also help track material flows and provide brands with more detailed information about products at the end of their useful life.
The trial comes as European textile rules place more pressure on collection and sorting systems. Under the EU Waste Framework Directive, member states were required to establish separate collection for textiles by January 1, 2025. That deadline did not result from a directive update in 2025; it was an obligation already written into EU waste law.
The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which entered into force on July 18, 2024, also established the framework for Digital Product Passports. These passports are intended to store product information that can support sustainability, circularity and legal compliance. The exact requirements will be introduced through product-specific rules rather than applying immediately to every garment.
“As DPP approaches, brands must invest in embedded RFID technology,” Texaid CEO Martin Böschen said, pointing to possible uses ranging from inventory control to automated sorting and end-of-life services.
The results remain a controlled pilot, not evidence of full-scale commercial deployment. Avery Dennison also said that broader use of the Fibersort system would require further investment in AI cameras and data management, along with additional hardware and software optimisation.
