In March 2026, Seamless Australia reported that an estimated 45,000 tonnes of clothing is at risk of going to Australian landfill following disruption to the freight routes that ship donated clothing to the UAE. Australia exported 85,000 tonnes of pre-loved clothing in 2024 and with current supply chain shocks from tariffs pressures and shipping suspensions, this presents a timely opportunity to pivot to a data-driven, collaborative full circular economy.
This White Paper sees the innovation opportunity to follow the EU’s lead by adapting value chains to include local Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) opportunities, prior to recycling, plus add Digital Product Passports (DPPs) able to collect bulk product-only data at scale to drive revenue and resource recovery and link circular infrastructure in Australia.
This White Paper presents current challenges as accounting, data and logistics infrastructure opportunities - calculating the opportunity based on the hypothetical scenario that within the 45,000 tonnes heading to landfill, we could recover around 6 million pairs of denim jeans, and how this can be a catalyst for building financially sustainable circular economy systems based on accurate unprecedented, verifiable metrics and using smart tech to link upstream to downstream and engage the creative “centre of circularity” through repair and redesign.
By adding mitigation accounting, imagine 3 million consumers purchase a recirculated pair instead of new jeans and wore them for one year, displacing new purchases - environmentally, this results in around 99,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions prevented before they occur. The brands however, could increase their ROI from jeans they put on the market by adding a washable RFID DPP that collects profits through EPR and rewards brands for product repairability and longevity.
This White Paper encapsulates a Circular Business Model that includes reverse logistics, combined with four enabling elements - EPR (resale and rent but importantly, adding repair and redesign), RFID Digital Product Passports (DPPs) enabling data collection and sharing at scale, trusted data capture via the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) and circular accounting that includes ROI revenue recovery, avoided costs and mitigation of destructive environmental impacts.
The four elements work together linked to upstream traceability data that’s added to DPPs at the design and manufacturing stages: First, connecting and optimising existing infrastructure: linking siloed sectors, value chain actors and government into collaborative, efficient downstream circular systems, supported by policy alignment and targeted investment. Tap into the RFID readers and sensors already being rolled out globally creatine efficient, cost effective linked systems.
Second, using RFID DPPs product-only data to collect verifiable information at scale via the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) for global data interoperability; enabling accurate metrics and link ERP plus address environmental hotspots first.
Third, using the UNTP-framework to provide accurate metrics to analyse and adapt both business and community value chains based on best-case scenarios, streamlining compliance and revealing real opportunities for resource and revenue recovery plus inspire a shared responsibility through trusted storytelling.
Fourth, capturing circular accounting measurements that demonstrate and share the full financial return on investment: revenue generated through EPR-linked resell plus rental, and expanding repair and redesign networks, including thriving SWOP communities — all before end-of-life recycling — alongside sustainability accounting that calculates avoided costs such as shipping, council landfill management, emissions mitigation and pollution reduction.
The Global Circular Network (GCN) has modelled a targeted intervention: isolating and recovering the denim component of this at-risk waste stream using RFiD THREADS® Digital Product Passports and the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) as the interoperability framework for verifiable, trusted data capture at scale. See below for detailed analysis based on recovering 6 million pairs of jeans to show the scale of what becomes possible.
Note- Most RFID tags in circulation today are printed labels — not washable, not long-term durable, discarded post-purchase on packaging, and not connected to a circular economy. RFiD THREADS® are different. As a 15cm flexible thread embedded directly into the textile product — rated to 100+ washes and readable through packaging, pallets and conveyor systems without line of sight — they're designed to stay with the product for its full lifecycle, not just the first leg of its journey. QR Codes need to be sighted and intact and can only scan one product at a time therefore not able to scale circularity and best for consumers for Product ID and to access Customer Passport Apps privately to trace their own products separately.
DENIM IMPACT.
Research shows that denim represents approximately 8% of the apparel mix. Applied to the 45,000-tonne at-risk stream, that yields an estimated 3,600 tonnes - calculated as though they represent 6 million pairs of denim jeans - currently heading to landfill.
See data below calculated at a conservative resale value of $20 per item through EPR-enabled channels - and imagine if we also sorted and gifted the durable denim ‘waste’ to clever repair and redesign designers, those six million jeans represent a conservative $120 million AUD in recoverable economic value.
The estimated cost to equip each pair with a single RFiD THREADS® DPP at the point of EPR (easily slipped into a seam and bulk add known data - or ideally at the upstream design/manufacture stage) is AUD 0.17 cents each - costing $1,020,000 AUD.
Net circular value returned to the local economy: approximately $119 million - supporting local jobs and reducing reliance on costly onshore and offshore systems. If RFiD THREADS® DPP are added from the get-go and brands are identifiable, we can reward brands for product longevity through eco-modulated ROI and provide efficient compliance data.
RFID readers and sensors are also used to identify and sort products based on materials at scale, supporting the diversion of hazardous chemicals, certifying feedstock to add to the next product’s DPP plus give brands real-time compliance data for EPR and recycling reporting.
By adding circular accounting we extend the returns well beyond simple revenue. See data breakdowns on shipping costs and landfill fees for our existing ‘waste’ and 6M jeans. At approximately $4,500 per container and 1,800 containers required to export the full 45,000-tonne stream, the avoided shipping cost alone reaches $8.1 million AUD. Council landfill costs, in say Sydney, are at $200 per tonne, therefore by diverting our 6M jeans we would avoid $720,000 AUD alone. By integrating real financial returns and diversions we update accounting frameworks to measure circularity and action best-case methodologies.
With aims to reduce emissions and pollutants the environmental accounting from mitigation metrics is equally significant. With roughly 33 kg of CO₂ embedded in each pair of jeans through production, the opportunity to divert and reuse 6 million pair through circular pathways (extending for just one year longer) avoids approximately 198,000 tonnes of CO₂.
Imagine this as the equivalent of removing 43,000 petrol cars from Australian roads for a full year.
Water savings across the denim component alone are estimated at 45 to 60 billion litres, (depending on methodology and geography) which is impactful especially for denim manufacturers in countries like Bangladesh and India. (full displacement of virgin production)
LANDFILL DIVERSION IMPACT vs EPR IMPACT.
Extending the life of 6 million jeans by just one year through EPR-driven recovery and reuse avoids approximately 198,000 tonnes of CO₂ by displacing new production, rising to over 200,000 tonnes when landfill diversion is included. This is equivalent to removing up to 47,000 petrol cars from Australian roads for a year.
By comparison, landfill diversion alone contributes only a small fraction of this impact. Overall, EPR reuse strategies delivers approximately 11 to 55 times greater emissions mitigation than landfill diversion, demonstrating that over 90% of climate benefits come from avoiding the production of new garments rather than waste management alone.
These hypothetical figures, when captured through verifiable UNTP-aligned data, become the trusted sustainability metrics that brands, investors, EPR schemes, and regulators need to make decisions and demonstrate impact.
This White Paper supports the implementation of a regulated mandatory clothing product stewardship that includes EPR and a practical, technology-enabled solution that connects existing value chain actors - upstream and downstream, from fibre to feedstock - uses washable RFID smart technology already available for B2B, generates genuine financial returns, and builds the trusted data layer that meaningful policy and accountability require.
The sections that follow detail the modelling assumptions, circular value calculations, avoided cost accounting, emissions impact and the role of washable commercial UHF RFiD THREADS® DPPs and UNTP data frameworks in enabling a scalable, locally grounded circular economy response - and a replicable model for value chains facing similar disruptions around the world, looking to pivot to equitable circular economy that supports people and planet.
This White Paper was produced by Alison Jose, CEO, Global Circular Network. Full modelling methodology and data assumptions are set out in the body of this paper.
Source context - Seamless article reporting on 45,000 tonnes of textile waste unable to travel to UAE and at risk to be sent to landfill.
https://www.seamlessaustralia.com/news/45000-tonnes-at-risk-why-policy-and-investment-must-align
WHITE PAPER. 17/4/2026
Hypothetical for diverting 45,000 tonnes of textile waste currently destined for landfill — calculating the outcomes of isolating and recovering the denim jeans component, known for product longevity — using the Global Circular Network and RFiD THREADS® Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for at-scale B2B data capture via authorised RFID readers and scanners.
This builds on analysis of the existing 45,000 tonnes of textile waste stream and models the opportunity to capture value prior to landfill or export, by connecting materials into circular pathways.
Data is captured using the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) interoperable framework to collect verifiable, trusted data (addressing current issues of self-reporting, lack of accountability, inaccurate data leading to mis-reporting and metrics used to design best-case circularity), combined with QR codes for Product ID and consumer education.
QR codes enable consumer interaction (Product ID) but these tools can only scan one product at a time and are not designed to survive the full product lifecycle if printed on products, or discarded on swing tags post-purchase.
We encourage brands to provide a third-party Customer Passport App, to engage customers and ensure the separation of product data vs consumer data and protection of privacy and ownership of information
In contrast, RFiD THREADS®:
are embedded directly into products and are only able to collect product-only data
enable bulk scanning simultaneously without line of sight for efficient bulk uploading for traceability, EPR and sorting to identify and divert hazardous chemicals - tackling the problems of the enormity of volumes.
allow UNTP data to be added continuously as products move through the circular economy to collect verifiable open source data.
utilises the existing and growing roll out of RFID readers and scanners in factories, infrastructure (bins, trucks, conveyor belts, commercial laundromats, IoT, robotics), shipping (import and export), etc. Alongside affordable handheld devices, enabling businesses and NFPs of any size to engage and become a valuable participant in a circular economy. Supports the importance to integrate both human and robotic workforces to tackle the problems of volumes at scale but also realistic improvement and equitable impact to retain valuable jobs and community networks.
SYSTEM INTEGRATION + DATA INTEROPERABILITY
The platform connects to third-party platforms via APIs, allowing:
any brand or system to integrate existing software - no need to switch systems
compatibility across closed and open systems
retention of IP and confidentiality
no requirement for new infrastructure investment
enables full lifecycle data capture aligned with UNTP interoperability standards.
EPR + CIRCULAR INFRASTRUCTURE CONTEXT
This model connects to a local Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) network, enabling circular pathways for resell, repair, redesign, reuse - before end-of-life recycling.
EPR is a critical pillar of the circular economy, currently underdeveloped in Australia, particularly in relation to:
data verification
accountability (upstream and downstream)
verifiable outcomes and accurate reporting to support the use of existing, and development of, circular pathways based on best-practice scenarios
Linking siloed infrastructure to support sharing of facilities and costs.
This lack of trusted data significantly reduces the effectiveness of existing metrics, reporting systems alongside accountability, education and full systems engagement; from brands, consumers, businesses, charities and all levels of government.
THE IMPACT OF 45,000 TONNES OF TEXTILE BASED PRODUCTS GOING TO WASTE AND HOW TO USE 6 MILLION PAIRS OF JEANS TO PIVOT TO CIRCULAR SYSTEMS
1. Baseline Australian clothing data
Australia sells ~1.51 billion garments annually, with ~220,000 tonnes sent to landfill domestically, while over 100,000 tonnes of used textiles are exported offshore each year—much of which is unable to be transparently tracked and will ultimately likely to become waste in an overseas landfill.
Calculates based on the reported 45,000 tonnes currently unable to be exported (Exported volume ≈ 20% of landfill-equivalent)
2. Estimating denim share
Assumption based on global apparel mix: Denim ≈ 8% (range 5–10%)
→ 45,000 tonnes × 8% = 3,600 tonnes denim.
3. Convert the tonnes of denim into a hypothetical quantity of “denim jeans”
Avg weight per jeans: 0.6 kg 3,600,000 kg ÷ 0.6 =
→ ~6,000,000 jeans (Midpoint estimate, balanced, not overstated)
An estimated 6 MILLION JEANS GOING TO LANDFILL - that has already been collected and put into storage (shipping containers)
4. The potential revenue from the recovered 6 million jeans* from EPR
- potential for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) pathways FIRST - before end-of-life recycling - through resell but also importantly, adding repair and redesign and then resell.
We assume that all jeans are in wearable condition given they were sorted and ready to re-sell offshore to second hand markets, therefore a conservative assumption resale value at $20 per item (noting there will be additional costs and revenue derived from repair or redesign eg. repairers/redesigners time.) Plus sort to donate ‘unwanted’ to re-designers to reuse quality denim resources to redesign into new products (eg increases product value beyond $20) and not calculating the mitigation and costs of raw materials, by using recovered textiles Vs virgin.
6,000,000 × $20 = → $120,000,000 AUD
Economic injection: → a potential $120M is returned to the local economy (including jobs and ROI potential to reward the original brands. Increase profits by receiving small increments and/or eco-modulated tax cuts. Re-invest and circumvent costs related to funding circularity.
*Assuming a high recovery rate from pre-sorted export-grade material.
5. Deduct cost for RFiD THREADS® DPPs
6,000,000 × $0.17 cents per RFiD THREADS® to add a B2B DPP = $1,020,000 AUD
Not including costs for set-up, platform, cloud infrastructure, B2B network, Readers, consumer education, marketing etc.
Ideal to collaborate with existing concepts like Seamless and add mandatory policies such as EPR and DPPs - adapted from best-case EU regulations. Easier to plug into EU, global south and wide-spread global systems using UNTP.
Note, Australian brands selling to the EU will already need to comply by 2027 (eg meet regulations such as ESPR, Waste Framework Directive with EPR and end-of-life recycling and DPPs to capture with verifiable data and eco-modulated costs and tax incentives (able to be built over time from accurate circular LCA data from GCN’s fibre to feedstock metrics).
6. Net circular value
Track the $120,000,000 collected as recovered revenue minus costs eg. $1,020,000 cost to add RFID DPPs = → $118,980,000 AUD is reinvested into the local economy through the resell, repair and design sectors - approx cost for adding DPPs to recovered 6 million denim jeans to facilitate EPR, collect data, assist sorting at scale before recycling. (Note, when RFID DPPs and mandatory data is added at the manufacturing stage, the brands will be required to add details on hazardous chemicals used, to assist sorters to identify and divert plus certify recycling feedstock)
7. Council cost savings
(NSW benchmark) ~$200 per tonne landfill cost. Total (45,000 tonnes): → $9,000,000.
AUD 9 million cost savings - potentially spent from local councils, businesses and charities sending products to landfill.
If we take the Denim only: 3,600 × $200 = → $720,000 AUD saved through landfill diversion. Jeans can take years to decompose in non-aerated landfill. A large proportion of jeans made hold synthetic stretch elastane that can take up to 200 years to decompose leaving plastic microfibre pollution in soil, water, etc.
8. Logistics + export cost avoided.
By not sending 45k tonnes to UAE
Containers: 25 tonnes per container. 45,000 ÷ 25 = → ~1,800 containers
Shipping cost: ~$4,500 per container 1,800 × $4,500 = → $8.1M AUD avoided cost by not shipping.
Valuable Insight: Shipping (~$8M) ≈ Landfill (~$9M)
Costs to export the resources and bury it as waste is roughly the same but without the returns coming from increased resource and revenue recovery, jobs and the environmental benefits.
Note these costs (shipping or landfill solutions) will have allocated budgets, therefore this money could be reallocated to invest in Australian circular pathways including education into circular design strategies (feeding unprecedented accurate data to AI LLMs), EPR networks and end-of-life recycling.
Budgets to also boost local recycling and remanufacturing opportunities in Australia such as Blocktexx, Upparel’s Uptex (felt, cushion and board) and Jeanius Denim Insulation by Planet Protector - the perfect solution for when our 6 million+ jeans are finally at the end of their extended lives. (note also more exciting data to add to our mitigation accounting and add to their certification to put onto new products)
9. Landfill diversion and emissions mitigation.
Hypothetical of our 3,600 tonnes of denim diverted (approx 6M jeans)
avoided landfill emissions only (methane, decomposition, microfibre pollution)
Landfill emissions diversion
~1–3 kg CO₂e per kg for cotton-dominant textiles (with upper ranges possible depending on landfill conditions)
3,600 tonnes denim → roughly ~3,600–18,000 t CO₂e
Equivalent to taking 780–3,900 cars off the road for one year.
10. Add mitigation accounting showing avoided production and import emissions
Jeans are high impact due to denim’s resource intensity during production and landfill decomposition (jeans lifecycle can be 5 to 10+ years). Mitigation strategies have an enormous positive environmental impact of avoiding the production and import of 6m new jeans. Although this would represent a financial loss of sales for brands, this can be mitigated from brands increasing ROI from EPR solutions - eg they continue to increase profits post-sale based on their products longevity and potential less taxes through eco-modulation.
Demand displacement: avoided production + shipping
A core advantage of circular systems is their ability to displace new production, not just extend product life.
6 million new jeans avoided. Context: approx 1.51B garments sold annually → 6M ÷ 1.51B = just 0.4% of annual volume delivers disproportionate impact.
Emissions impact. ~33 kg CO₂ per jeans. 6,000,000 jeans × 33 = → 198,000 tonnes CO₂ avoided (conservative low to mid range) by reusing the 6M jeans and replacing 6M new jeans not produced.
This figure represents upstream emissions that never occur, including:
raw material extraction (cotton, petrochemical inputs for elastane)
water, energy and chemical-intensive manufacturing processes
finishing, dyeing and washing treatments (a major emissions hotspot in denim)
international freight and import into Australia
Unlike end-of-pipe reductions, this is preventative mitigation—removing emissions at the source by reducing demand for virgin production.
11. Combined mitigation - Car equivalent
Accurate accounting calculates resale and reuse extend product life alongside displacement that prevents entirely new emissions from entering the system.
Combining landfill diversion and reuse and demand displacement pathways delivers an estimated 201,600 to 216,000 tonnes CO₂e total avoided emissions:
Emissions mitigation equivalent to removing approximately 43,800 to 47,000 petrol cars from the road for a year—demonstrating the compounded climate impact of circular systems acting both downstream and upstream (production and shipping).
Imagine taking up to 47,000 cars off the road just from diverting and reusing the denim alone is a great illustration of the impact of circularity.
12. Relative impact
To compare “reuse via EPR” vs “landfill diversion only”:
Landfill-diversion only benefit: 3,600–18,000 t CO₂e (not including benefits from fibre to fibre recycling to replace virgin with recycled content)
Reuse (avoiding new production): 198,000 t CO₂e
Reuse impact. Lower-bound comparison:
198,000 ÷ 18,000 ≈ 11× greater impact → ~1,000% more impactUpper-bound comparison:
198,000 ÷ 3,600 ≈ 55× greater impact → ~5,400% more impact
Extending the life of 6 million jeans by just one year through EPR-driven recovery and reuse delivers approximately 1,000% to 5,400% greater emissions mitigation than landfill diversion alone. This demonstrates that while avoiding landfill has some benefit, the overwhelming majority of climate impact—over 90%—comes from displacing the need to produce new garments.
13. Circular impact summary
MATERIAL FLOW. 45,000 tonnes diverted. 3,600 tonnes denim. ~6 million jeans recovered
ECONOMIC VALUE. ~$120M gross value. $119M net after DPP. Supports local EPR to increase revenue from existing captured denim via resale, repair, redesign before sorting and recycling (F2F, remanufacturing etc)
WASTE + COST REDUCTION. 3,600 tonnes diverted. $720k landfill cost avoided (just the denim)
CLIMATE IMPACT. 198,000 tonnes CO₂ avoided. Equivalent to ~43,000 cars
CIRCULAR DISPLACEMENT. 6M new jeans avoided.
WATER SAVINGS. 7,500–10,000L per jeans. → 45–60 billion litres saved (in off-shore factories but still added to brands LCA reporting data)
MITIGATION VALUE — AVOIDED PRODUCTION + SYSTEM-WIDE IMPACT
Circular systems deliver two distinct but complementary forms of emissions mitigation:
1. Avoided production (demand displacement)
6M fewer new jeans produced and imported. Reduced demand for virgin materials (avoided costs and emissions).
2. Extended product life (reuse impact)
Reduced purchase frequency and delayed replacement cycles
Lower cumulative production over time
Additional system benefits:
Avoided international freight emissions (manufacturing countries → Australia)
Reduced pressure on high-impact supply chains (water, chemicals, land use)
Lower microfibre and chemical pollution from both production and landfill
Reduced reliance on volatile global supply chains
Captured through UNTP-aligned data, these become verifiable avoided emissions, strengthening carbon accounting, ESG disclosures, and future policy mechanisms such as eco-modulated EPR fees or carbon-linked incentives.
14. GCN’s AI-DRIVEN HYPOTHETICAL MODEL.
This hypothetical assumes:
denim jeans are recovered from the waste stream (already collected and potentially already isolated? and/or easy to sort)
each item is fitted with a RFiD THREADS® DPP (~AUD $0.17 per unit)
products are scanned and tracked through multiple EPR loops collecting verifiable data following the UNTP framework.
This enables:
real-time LCA data capture at scale (adding DPPs at manufacturing stage improves circularity and adds upstream traceability plus downstream hazardous chemical detection)
simultaneous data collection across thousands of products (add bulk traceability data upstream then downstream EPR and financial data)
generation of verifiable UNTP-aligned datasets to assist in developing best-case circular strategies and pathways
A single RFiD THREADS® insertion allows each product to:
carry its upstream then downstream data across its lifecycle
be repeatedly scanned through authorised B2B infrastructure for data related to the product only (assists efficiency: compliance, import, export, financial etc)
link directly into EPR systems prior to recycling - ensuring EPR benefits are captured before end-of-life recycling, accurate sorting to divert hazardous chemicals (a particular problem with denim finishes) and certify recycling feedstocks.
ECONOMIC MODEL
This system increases profitability through EPR by:
distributing responsibility across value chain actors (producers, manufacturers, brands, consumers, NFP, businesses, government etc)
linking infrastructure and reducing duplicated costs
enabling eco-modulated contributions (“taxed” inputs)
These contributions are calculated based on: Product, durability, reusability, longevity.
15. Conclusion
The use of DPPs able to collect at scale full lifecycle LCA data that includes EPR and verifiable interoperable data, highlights an important dynamic: circular economy systems operate across multiple intervention points simultaneously. Downstream, they divert waste and extend product life, avoiding emissions and pollution associated with disposal and replacement cycles.
Upstream, they reduce demand for new production, preventing emissions and pollution before they occur across raw material extraction, manufacturing and global logistics. When measured together, these impacts reveal a significantly larger mitigation outcome than either pathway alone.
The 6 million denim items represents a small portion of Australia’s textile waste, yet delivers:
~$119M recoverable value
~$720k landfill cost avoided (denim only)
~198,000 tonnes CO₂ avoided from displaced production (over 200,000 tonnes when including landfill diversion)
~43,000 cars equivalent removed (denim only)
With minimal infrastructure change (RFID-enabled systems and API connectivity), this model enables:
structure towards creating an agile, scalable full circular economy at scale
local job creation, resource and revenue recovery, renewed trust in donating systems - increased consumer engagement through cross promotion, social media
Trusted sustainability data to develop circular economy pathways based on accurate metrics with global interoperability.
Potential to engage brands from the design stage, add EPR, plus advance and promote the environmental benefits and implement all 3 circular economy principles and help put the economy into circularity with shared responsibility and connectivity.
Support ethical monitoring, reporting and equitable engagement based on trusted metrics, utilising smart tech tools for product circularity while maintaining consumer privacy.
B2B CIRCULAR PLATFORM + RFiD THREADS® Digital Product Passport
Includes consumer-facing swing tag linked to a Global Circular Network, enabling full circular pathways and building trust through United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) transparency data and capturing benefits to people and the environment.
Alison Jose
CEO, Global Circular Network.
info@globalcircularnetwork.com
www.globalcircularnetwork.com