CollecTS – Collect Textiles Smart

On 1 January 2026, the City of Mönchengladbach launched the ‘CollecTS – Collect Textiles Smart’ funding project. The aim of the project is to significantly increase the reuse rate of old textiles and, at the same time, to tap into the value creation potential of the circular economy across all industries for the business location of Mönchengladbach.

The project is being implemented by the city of Mönchengladbach. As part of the project, a circular economy officer was appointed for the city of Mönchengladbach for the first time, acting as an interface between the city administration and WFMG. At the same time, this person is the first point of contact and networker for all matters relating to the circular economy.

Intelligent collection of used textiles instead of downcycling

A key approach of CollecTS is to improve the quality of used textile collection. Although textiles are already being collected today, inadequate pre-sorting often leads to so-called cross-contamination. As a result, high-quality reuse is hardly possible and textiles can usually only be downcycled. In addition, the manual sorting effort remains high, which makes the used textile business increasingly uneconomical.

CollecTS addresses this issue by upgrading conventional collection containers to intelligent collection systems. The project idea is to be implemented through consumer-oriented pre-sorting using smart ‘CollecTS containers’ and a wider variety of disposal options with digital support technology. This should increase efficiency and user-friendliness.

Circular economy as a main topic for the future of the business location

Beyond the textile sector, CollecTS is investigating the value creation potential that the circular economy offers Mönchengladbach across all industries. At the same time, information and training opportunities relating to the circular economy are being established and expanded.

The project is thus making an important contribution to structural change and the sustainable development of Mönchengladbach as a business location.

Funding framework and project structure

  • Duration: 36 months
  • Total volume: just under €1.8 million
  • CollecTS is a cooperation project within the framework of the call for proposals ‘Circular Economy – Circular Cities.NRW’ as part of the ERDF/JTF programme NRW 2021–2027.
  • The project partners are:
    • the Centre for Textile Logistics (CTL; a cooperation between the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund)
    • collectingsystems GmbH
    • SRE GmbH
    • Volksverein Mönchengladbach
  • Associated partners include Wirtschaftsförderung Mönchengladbach GmbH (WFMG) and Mönchengladbacher Abfall-, Grün- und Straßenbetriebe AöR (mags).

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