Operational Infrastructure · Textile Circular Economy
The operational layer for textile circularity.
Collection. Sorting. Recovery. Compliance. Connected in one system.
Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles is coming. By April 2028, collectors, sorting operators, and Producer Responsibility Organisations must demonstrate traceable volume data — from processes that today still run on spreadsheets and disconnected tools. APARO is building the software infrastructure that structures this operational reality: from collection point to regulatory report.
Why APARO
Textile circularity is becoming a regulatory reality.
Producer responsibility creates data obligations.
European textile EPR legislation takes effect by April 2028. Manufacturers, retailers, and importers must fulfil their responsibilities for collection, sorting, and recovery through licensed Producer Responsibility Organisations. Those PROs need operational volume data — from every collection point, every sorting facility, every recovery stage.
Fragmentation is the bottleneck.
Collection, sorting, reuse, recycling, compliance and reporting run today across separate tools, manual processes, and operational silos. What belongs together is not connected. What must be reported is not structured. This is not a digitisation problem — it is an infrastructure problem.
Scaling requires a shared data foundation.
Thousands of pilots have launched. The transition to regular operations fails not because of technology, but because of missing operational coordination between actors. A shared software layer connecting collectors, sorters, PROs, and authorities is the precondition for scale — not its result.
What we are building
A software layer for circular textile processes.
APARO is building a software layer that connects operational workflows, material flows, and compliance data across the textile circular economy — from collector through sorting operator to producer responsibility.
Collection workflows
Structured workflows for distributed collection networks: containers, collection points, partner networks, logistics, different collection models. Visibility at location level — as a foundation for operational control and quota documentation.
Sorting and quality
Process support for sorting operators: batch tracking, quality decisions, material classification by fibre type and condition, operational handoffs. Data is generated in the operation — not reconstructed afterwards.
Downstream coordination
Connecting sorting output to recovery pathway: reuse, resale, recycling, export. Who receives what — and what becomes of it — becomes visible and documentable.
Traceability and EPR compliance
Operational data structures for Producer Responsibility Organisations: collection point register, quota tracking, eco-modulation data, standardised regulatory export. PROs commission collectors and sorting operators — but today receive no structured operational data from them. APARO is developing the layer in which this data is generated: as a by-product of daily operations, not as an additional reporting burden.
April 2028 · Textile Law · EPR
Textile EPR is coming. The operational data question is still unsolved.
The EU Waste Framework Directive obliges Germany to introduce a textile EPR system by April 2028. Manufacturers, retailers, and importers of clothing, household textiles, and footwear must fulfil their obligations through licensed Producer Responsibility Organisations.
PROs must demonstrate to authorities that their registered collectors and sorting operators achieve the required quotas. For this they need operational volume data — from every location, with material qualification, continuously documented.
This data does not exist systematically today. It emerges as a by-product of operational activity — when that operation is digitally structured.
For Producer Responsibility Organisations
PROs commission operators. But they receive no data from them.
A Producer Responsibility Organisation is financially responsible for collection, sorting, and recovery — but it operates no containers, no sorting facilities, no recovery lines. It works with collectors and sorting operators who have their own processes and their own records.
The result: PROs must demonstrate quotas over which they have no direct operational control — and for which no continuous data basis exists today.
APARO is developing the infrastructure that solves this problem. The platform will structure the workflows at collectors and sorting operators — and deliver to the PRO as a by-product the volume data, material qualifications, and location documentation it needs for EPR reporting. Not as a manual export. But as a structured data flow from ongoing operations.
Collection point register
Which locations are assigned to this PRO — and where are the gaps relative to the legally required coverage.
Quota tracking
Live overview of whether the collection quota is on track — broken down by region and connected operator.
Eco-modulation data
Which material qualities are flowing in — the basis for fee calculation for connected manufacturers.
Regulatory export
A PRO using APARO will know at any time: what volumes were captured where, what material qualities entered sorting — and whether the required quotas are on track.
Founder + Team
Built by someone who knows the operational reality.
APARO was founded by Andreas Papoutsakis — a technology executive with operational experience from the international used textile business.
As CIO of one of Europe’s leading companies for the collection, sorting and recovery of post-consumer textiles, he experienced the operational reality from the inside: fragmented systems, missing data continuity, manual processes at every interface — and the growing pressure from regulation and market expectations.
APARO was founded on the conviction that textile circularity does not fail for lack of ambition — but for lack of operational infrastructure.
He is supported by a focused team in product, technology, and circular systems.
Our perspective
Circularity is getting heavy. That’s a good thing.
The first phase of textile circularity was defined by strategies, targets, and pilot projects. The next phase is different: physical, operational, data-driven.
We call this Heavy Circularity — the phase in which actual material volumes must be moved, sorted, traced, and recovered. In which compliance is no longer a voluntary signal, but a legal obligation. In which infrastructure, not ambition, determines outcomes.
APARO is being built for this phase.
For selected partners
We work with operators, PROs and stakeholders who know the operational reality.
APARO is in development and currently working with selected partners. We are in conversation with sorting operators and collectors looking to structure their operational foundation — and with Producer Responsibility Organisations seeking a reliable data basis for their EPR reporting.
If you are an operator, PRO, brand, or stakeholder in the textile circular economy: we look forward to speaking with you.
CONTACT
Start a conversation
For selected partners, operators and stakeholders in the textile circular economy ecosystem. We respond within 24 hours.