In Prato, AI is sorting fabrics at the new 31-million hub
‘This can be reused, that needs to be recycled.’ These are the voice commands that integrate the work of humans and artificial intelligence at the new Textile Hub in Prato. The project represents an investment of €31.3 million for the Tuscan multi-utility company Plures, which has received €900,000 in funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and a tax credit of €850,000 under the Industry 4.0 scheme.
The aim is to become a centre for the production of secondary raw materials. When operating at full capacity, the plant will employ 50 staff across two shifts, with around 40 people involved in the semi-automatic sorting of materials, during which garments are categorised as either reusable or recyclable. According to Alberto Irace, managing director of Plures, it is necessary to ‘meet a need that is set to grow rapidly in the coming years: to recover as much value as possible from textile materials and return them to the production cycle’.
A collection equivalent to the needs of the entire region of Tuscany
The plant can process up to 33,000 tonnes of textile waste of all types per year. Twenty thousand tonnes come from the extensive collection network that Plures operates across the region via collection bins, door-to-door collections and recycling centres.
In addition to these post-consumer materials – which amount to the estimated requirement for the whole of Tuscany – there are a further 13,000 tonnes of so-called pre-consumer waste: surplus materials from supply chains (mainly from companies in the Prato district) that can be recovered.
