The challenges of post-consumer textile waste collection 
The vast majority (87%) of European textile waste (15 MT in 2025) consists of post-consumer textiles, mainly discarded by households.¹ Most of these textiles are collected from bins and drop-off points through which citizens return used clothing.
The revised Waste Framework Directive, which requires EU Member States to collect textiles separately for reuse and recycling since 1 January 2025, has increased the volumes that operators must manage and represents a fundamental step towards circularity. At the same time, the resulting increase in collected volumes places additional pressure on collection networks, requiring operators to service a larger number of bins while controlling transport, labour and logistics costs. This makes more accurate monitoring increasingly important, creating a clear role for digital technologies in improving the efficiency and economic sustainability of collection systems.

Sensoneo: a technology provider for data-driven waste management
Sensoneo is a Slovak-founded technology company established in 2017 that develops and provides smart, data-driven solutions for waste management and the circular economy.  The company reports a turnover of EUR 15 million²  and a total workforce of more than 160 people, 128 of whom are in Slovakia. Sensoneo has an active presence in Europe, the United States, and Asia. Its technology is designed and developed in-house, and its hardware production takes place in the European Union.
The company’s activity centres on data-driven waste management and the digitalisation of circular-economy processes. It began with ultrasonic fill-level sensors combined with a cloud-based Waste Management System and has since broadened its portfolio to include route planning and collection optimisation, bin access management, factory waste management, take-back and reverse-logistics systems, and end-to-end IT systems for nationwide deposit-return schemes. Sensoneo has implemented and operated Deposit Return Scheme IT systems in nine countries.  
In the textile collection sector, the company develops ultrasonic sensors for installation in textile collection bins. They transmit real-time fill-level data to the WMS, which supports route planning and a citizen-facing app, allowing operators to service bins according to actual demand rather than a fixed schedule. Sensoneo refers to this approach as dynamic collection, particularly suited to textile bins, whose filling patterns tend to be irregular and difficult to predict.  

The adoption of smart sensors in textile waste collection: examples in Central and Eastern Europe
Two operators in Central and Eastern Europe, Ekocharita and TexCycle, provide examples of successful applications of Sensoneo’s technology for post-consumer textile collection. Both manage networks of bins through which citizens return used clothing and introduced fill-level sensors to replace fixed collection schedules with demand-based servicing.

Ekocharita is a Slovak non-profit association that collects, sorts, and directs used clothing, footwear, and household textiles towards reuse, donation, recycling, or other forms of recovery. It manages a network of around 1,300 bins in Slovakia and collects approximately 3,000 tonnes of textiles each year. After installing fill-level sensors in 600 of its bins in 2021, Ekocharita reported a 22% reduction in collection costs and a 29% reduction in the time required to collect each tonne of material. The new technology has enabled Ekocharita to guarantee the daily collection volume needed for smoother warehouse management. It has also improved reliability and prevented overflowing containers, translating into a competitive advantage over competitors.

TexCycle provides a second example with broader geographical scope. Established in Bulgaria in 2000, the company collects textile waste across Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece. It sorts approximately 70 tons of garments per day for reuse, maintains a mechanical recycling capacity of 1.5 tons per hour, and distributes second-hand clothing across five continents. Through these operations, TexCycle ranks among the region's largest full-circularity providers for managing textile waste.To optimize logistics, the company has also installed more than 400 sensors in bins across over 15 cities with sensors transmitting fill-level data to Sensoneo’s Waste Management System and the associated app making information on collection points available to citizens.

Operational, environmental and social benefits
The adoption of smart monitoring systems generates benefits that extend beyond direct savings in collection costs. For textile collectors, reliable servicing reduces the risk of overflowing bins and improves the quality of service offered to schools, universities, shopping centres, and other sites that host collection points. According to Ekocharita, this greater reliability also helped the organisation secure locations that competing operators had previously managed. At the same time, more predictable collection volumes support warehouse and logistics planning, while continuous monitoring can help identify irregular activity and reduce the risk of theft.

The same operational improvements also produce environmental benefits. Servicing bins according to their actual fill levels reduces unnecessary vehicle journeys, fuel consumption, and associated emissions, while also limiting traffic, noise, and litter around collection points. For example, in an interview published by Waste Management World, Sensoneo reported that some customers had reduced route duration and kilometres travelled by between 30% and 60%. These figures indicate the potential scale of the efficiency gains. The improvements in drivers’ working conditions add a further social dimension.

Conclusion
Digitalising textile waste collection does not, by itself, close the material loop. However, it can strengthen a critical part of the circular value chain: the use of smart monitoring technology illustrates how accurate, real-time data can make collection more reliable, efficient, and economically viable. These aspects are crucial as operators continue to face persistently narrow margins that may discourage them from maintaining or expanding their collection activities. In addition, data-driven collection and route optimisation can generate broader environmental and social benefits by reducing unnecessary vehicle journeys and associated emissions, preventing overflowing containers, keeping public spaces cleaner, and improving working conditions for collectors.

^{1.Advancing Textile Circularity: Europe’s Textile Waste Surge. The Case for System-Level Scale-Up,  Boston Consulting Group and ReHubs, 2026.}

^{2. Data refers to SENSONEO j. s. a.., year 2025. Source: Orbis database, Bureau van Dijk / Moody’s Analytics.}