On 2 July 2025, the seventh Textile Logistics Forum took place in Dortmund, organised by the Center Textillogistik (CTL) of The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) in Mönchengladbach and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund. The aim of the forum is to regularly bring together representatives from the textile and logistics industry and to promote professional dialogue.
This year's programme offered a variety of presentations and practical orientation tours as well as opportunities for exchange and networking among the participants. The programme focused on forward-looking topics such as sustainable city logistics, the circular economy, innovative sorting technologies for textiles, recycling potential, current political developments and technological innovations in textile logistics.
Markus Muschkiet (Head of CTL at the HSNR and Fraunhofer IML) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Clausen (Head of the Fraunhofer IML and the Institute for Transport Logistics at the Technical University of Dortmund), a varied programme of presentations followed:
- Uwe Riechel (Department Head DACHSER Fashion Logistics) presented "Smart to POS", an innovative concept for sustainable city logistics tailored to the point of sale.
- Marija Meyerhoff (CTL research assistant at HSNR) presented the "ReFi(b)re" research project on closed-loop recycling of high-performance fibres in protective clothing.
- Dr Uwe Mazura, Managing Director of Gesamtverband textil+mode, gave an insight into political developments of particular relevance to the textile industry.
- Thomas Fischer (Fachverband Textilrecycling Kreislaufwirtschaft und Marktentwicklung) presented the study "Bedarf, Konsum und Wiederverwertung von Bekleidung und Textilien in Deutschland 2025" by the Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung e.V. (Federal Association for Secondary Raw Materials and Waste Disposal).
- Maximilian Brell, Technical Sales Engineer at HySpex GmbH, presented the latest advances in the field of hyperspectral imaging for sorting textiles.
- Lisa Gudehus (research associate at the CTL at HSNR) and Juliane Wipperfürth (research associate at the Institute of Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University) presented the "CircWool" project, a recycling technology for the reintegration of wool waste into the circular textile cycle.
In the afternoon, there were guided tours of the Fraunhofer IML laboratories and internships. There was also time for networking and professional dialogue.
About the "Centre Textile Logistics (CTL)": The Hochschule Niederrhein and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund have joined forces to create the Centre Textile Logistics (CTL). The Mönchengladbach and Dortmund sites each have a working group under the joint leadership of Prof Dr Markus Muschkiet. Under the motto "Logistics for textiles - textiles for logistics", the CTL aims to combine the efforts of industry to apply innovative solutions in practical applications and the interests of scientific partners in practical, current research topics in the field of textile logistics in the Lower Rhine region. The two working groups in Dortmund and Mönchengladbach complement each other and contribute their respective strengths and expertise.
