Seamless: Changing the Way We Choose, Enjoy and Recycle Clothing

Every year the Australia imports over 1.4 billion units of new clothing. Over half ends up in landfill in Australia, amounting to 200,000t annually. The carbon footprint of clothing in Australia is estimated to be as much as 13 milliont annually. On average, every Australian buys 56 items of clothing every year, most of which are made from non-renewable and environmentally problematic materials. It’s costing charities millions of dollars to sort through donations and dispose of unsaleable and unwearable items.

Seamless was designed using a co-design consultation process with industry, underpinned by a global review of best practice models of similar programs around the world. Seamless will be funded by a 4c per garment levy paid by ‘stewards’ (member brands) to transform the industry across four priority areas: 1. Circular design: incentivising clothing design to be durable, repairable, sustainable and recyclable 2. Circular business models: fostering new business models that prolong clothing life 3. Closing the materials loop: national clothing collection and sorting for effective reuse and recycling 4. Citizen behaviour change: change behaviour around clothing acquisition, use, care, disposal

If 60% of the market by volume sign up to the scheme, a funding pool of $36 million will be raised per year to transform the industry. Activities driven by Seamless, stakeholders and citizens are projected to divert 60% of end-of-life clothing from landfill by 2027, which equates to 120,000 tonnes. The funding raised through the scheme will go towards the collecting, sorting and recycling clothing at a national scale. This includes research and development into new recycling technology to develop this new system at scale, in partnership with the recycling industry.

An eco-modulation feature has been designed into the funding model, which provides a 25% reduction in garment levy, in order to incentivise and reward brands that are designing garments using circularity features. Eco modulation will drive change across the design, consumption, reuse and recyclability of a garment. Seamless will provide a maturity model will ensure all Seamless brands are provided with steps towards better practice when it comes to embedding circular design into garments. In FY25 eco modulation will be applied to any garment that is made up of mono material (eg. <98% material only) which will drive impact for clothing designed for greater recyclability and use of preferred fibres. Seamless will work with its members in the first 12 months to further develop and define the application of eco modulation.