For example, let’s look at the impact of adding the "centre of circularity" —Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)—to denim products in the EU and actively extending their life for just one additional year. By diverting the denim away from landfill, incineration, shipping offshore or premature recycling, and instead activating product life extension for a single year, we unlock extraordinarily positive environmental outcomes while developing a financially sustainable circular economy through resource and revenue recovery.

• In the EU total market sales show 1.2 billion denim items are sold annually

• and 35% go to landfill or incineration - that is around 425 million denim items wasted every year.

NOW LET’S IMAGINE IF ALL 425m ARE DENIM JEANS AND WE’VE INSERTED A SINGLE RFID THREADS® DPP during manufacturing plus bulk uploaded EU's ESPR required traceability data following the United Nations Transparency Protocol (UNTP) data architecture for trusted global data interoperability.

Brands will communicate with customers via a single-scan QR Code directed to their website or third-party Apps to send consumers to a network of local EPR providers whose business is to resell, repair and cleverly redesign - plus divert 'waste' to recyclers (could also include renters).

This is easy to imagine as RFID tags and readers are already being broadly used; from factory to transport to sales - however tags are thrown away with the packaging (52.8 billion in 2024) or not connected to a circular economy - so instead we've added 100 wash RFID THREADS® to stay with the jeans to collect product-only data when scanned by an approved RFID readers (B2B access only - factory, infrastructure, EPR, sorters, recyclers, transport).

Once the first customer is 'done with them' (1-8 years), picture a community network who extend the product's life by just one year extra through resale, repair and redesign. 

Imagine our 425 million pairs of jeans are diverted to community R-Cycler network providers so circular value can be retained locally first.

Assisting brands to report on the EU's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations, any B2B provider can access GCN's open-source data for free using affordable RFID readers. Free instant authentication plus trusted material data for marketing. Providers update EPR reporting data with a simple bulk-scan efficiency for the OG brands to use for regulatory compliance, eg. repaired, resold or redesigned on this date, in this region or country.

EPR partnerships can increase income for both providers and brands plus co-share trusted data to promote eco-leadership. Partners include MSMEs, charities, NFPs, women’s cluster groups - plus creative re-designers who reuse durable textiles and update the RFID THREADS® DPP showcasing the ‘new’ product. 

At end-of-life stage, the RFID THREADS® support sorters to divert textiles with hazardous chemicals and provide recyclers with verifiable data to certify recycling feedstock. 

Sorters can recover, reset, resell 100 wash RFID THREADS® onto a Secondary Market for profit eg. for items not needing full washability like accessories, homewares, footwear.

HOW MUCH REVENUE COULD WE RECOVER?
Unlocking Circular Value Through RFID THREADS®

• At a conservative €15 resale value (not including time for repair or redesign creativity) just re-selling 425m jeans represents over €6 billion put back into the economy from diverting ‘waste’.

• Providers pre-sort materials assisting recyclers to certify feedstock. 

• With accurate circular reporting data plus ROI this encourages brands to support EPR and reinvest into circular systems (perhaps distributed alongside Government taxes).

• Adding RFID THREADS® generates unprecedented data on product longevity and circularity via reliable UNTP metrics, enabling continuous optimisation toward best-case circular and community outcomes.

AND HERE'S THE EPR GOLD 

Imagine we’ve repaired and reused our 425 million jeans first — thus avoiding new production emissions for just one extra year (still with plenty of new jeans on the market, but consumers are now loving EPR) — the climate benefit is calculated at 55× greater and equivalent to taking 4.8 million cars off the road for a year.

Finally, let’s add both EPR strategies and emissions saved from landfill diversion together - the positive environmental impact is as though the entire populations of Barcelona stop driving for a year, or half of London’s residents or all of Sydney or Phoenix, Arizona, stop driving petrol cars for a whole year resulting in zero car emissions into the environment. BOOM.

GLOBAL CIRCULAR NETWORK'S VISION 

Yes these are hypothetical metrics but now imagine extending this approach to include other products, especially durable ones like uniforms and activewear. The untapped power of product life extension and connecting a data-driven smart circular economy is profound. The positive impact brands can have on communities, economies, and the environment can be captured, verified, and scaled through a single RFID thread and an interconnected, human-centred circular network. 

Contact us for further information and join a Feasibility Study