From bin to bale: creating predictable PCW flows for textile-to-textile systems

Alison Carey is a recognised leader in the global textile reuse and recycling sector, with decades of industry experience as a director of her family business, Chris Carey’s Collections, one of the UK’s leading textile collectors, sorters and graders.

Working across international reuse markets and recycling supply chains, Alison brings deep practical knowledge of how post-consumer textiles are managed at scale. She works closely with industry partners to develop solutions that strengthen circular textile systems and support the transition to fibre-to-fibre recycling.

Alison is Chair of Recyclatex, where she advocates for innovation, collaboration and investment to accelerate textile recycling technologies and circular supply chains. She also serves on several industry advisory boards, contributing expertise to initiatives driving the shift toward a more circular textile economy.

In addition, Alison is an active committee member of the UK Textile Recycling Association, where she champions the vital role of reuse and recycling businesses in delivering sustainable solutions for the global fashion and textile industry.

Jean-Francois is the Sales and Business Development Manager at Valvan, market leader and pioneer of sorting and baling systems for the textile and recycling sectors. With extensive experience in textiles and engineering, he specialises in machinery automated solutions and is dedicated to sustainability. Jean-Francois has led the development of sorting and preprocessing equipment for post-consumer textiles, facilitating their reuse or recycling.

Sirma Zheleva bringing extensive hands-on experience from the textile sorting sector. Her work spans the full chain of post-consumer textiles — from collection and operational sorting practices to recycling pathways and system design. Alongside her industry work, she is actively engaged in policy and sector development through her roles in BACT and Recycling Europe, contributing to discussions on how to build stable post-consumer textile flows and enable textile-to-textile solutions.

Toby's day job: dis-Solving the Textile Waste Crisis by scaling Worn Again's polycotton recycling process, which is optimised for post-consumer clothing. As a result, Toby deals directly with sorters on sourcing textile feedstocks which have been sorted & prepared appropriate for Worn Again recycling process. Topic specific experience: proactive contributor to industry advocacy on the reform of the Waste Frame Directive, which created the pathway for EU-wide textiles EPR mandates. Since then, he has advised multiple EPR projects, and is currently engaging with Retex Green in Italy and the EPR Proposal project for Germany. Previously, Toby has experience with Refashion-financed R&D projects. He therefore feels adequately knowledgeable to represent the recyclers in this panel.