Matoha is a new tech company based in London that develops easy-to-use and accurate material identification solutions. Over the last 4 years, we have developed our near-infrared material identification devices – PlasTell for plastics analysis and FabriTell for fabrics; both instruments are light and portable.  Our machines are based on the latest advances in the fields of electronics and are tightly coupled to our cloud and our app, offering a full solution to our customers. Our unique technology allows us to keep our manufacturing costs low and thereby enabling us to sell the machines at an affordable price for a maximum impact around the world.

Up to now, we have sold our products to businesses in four different continents.  In addition to our standard devices, we have developed an OEM material sensing module for integration into other systems, such as smart bins.  We will be launching our BenchTell very soon; a scanning unit to be mounted flush onto a bench to allow for fluent sorting, which can be integrated into a simple sorting station using multi-coloured sorting bins corresponding to the pre-set sorting categories.  In the last year we have also developed a NIR handheld device soon to be sold as part of our growing product range.

Our machines and installations provide a critical step in the world’s transition to a zero-waste, carbon neutral and circular economy by enabling easy sorting of various materials streams feeding into recycling, cleaning, or other subsequent processes and by providing onsite composition analysis for process and quality control, standardisation, and industry certification purposes.

Specifically in the field of textiles, our FabriTell technology has proven a success in identifying the fibre material in pre- and post-consumer textiles by categorising pure fabrics as well as fabric blends.  This is possible thanks to our highly sophisticated algorithms which can tackle the highly challenging task of recognising the large number of different blends present within the textile industry (most 2-component blends can be categorised).  One of the device’s useful attributes is the programmable colour of its LED to show a particular colour based on the category one wants to sort for (e.g. green = >95% cotton, red = discard).  With each scan taking only a few seconds, this technology can revolutionise and support textile sorting to avoid textiles ending up in landfill or being incinerated and instead being become the feedstock to the various textile recycling processes being launched and developed at a considerable pace today.

• Listing ID: 3147
• Contact: Chris Newton
• What are your aspirations and plans for the future?: 1. Continue to expand and improve our sample reference libraries to be used to calibrate and increase identification accuracy of all our devices 2. Create automatic sorting technology to accommodate growing scale of textile recycling 3. Work in a supportive partnership with textile recyclers (mechanical as well as chemical) 4. Develop an industry NIR standard; to help standardise textile material (at manufacturing stage) so its composition can be read and accurately identified by NIR 5. Increase awareness at garment design and manufacturing stage of choosing NIR detectable and recyclable textile material 6. Help drive textile recycling rates by promoting our technology and products with sorters and recyclers 7. Increase brands and consumer awareness of the need to recycle textiles; show our technology at flagship stores, public spaces etc
• What types of projects are you interested in working on through Future Fashion Factory?: • Building comprehensive sample libraries of textile materials, with samples preferably chemically analysed so composition is certain • Ensuring newly developed textile materials are NIR readable and recyclable, • Increase awareness at design and manufacturing stage of importance of NIR detectability of chosen textile materials • Educating garment/textile industry on the need to - simplify materials i.e. less components, no elastane, uniformity within garments • Educating textile industry on the need to use recycled material • Working with textile sorters to trial new technologies, ex. Automation of sorting, sorting for re-use, elimination of disruptors • Working partnerships with textile recyclers (mechanical as well as chemical recycling) to improve and modify our technology to support their operational needs • Smart front of house textile sorting for engagement with general population; education on textile sorting for re-use and recycling

Contact details

London ***** http://matoha.com