Solutions / Recycling Crisis / PART IV Interview

Spotlight: Recycling Crisis

How Aware Is Reinventing Textile Traceability with Blockchain and Tracers

By integrating physical tracers with blockchain-backed data, Aware offers brands and producers verifiable proof of origin, enabling compliance, circularity, and transparency—particularly crucial as regulatory frameworks like the UPV Textiles Act take hold globally. Koen Warmerdam, Co-founder and Brand Director of Aware, shares insights into how the company is transforming textile sustainability using a phygital traceability system.

Subir Ghosh

5 June 2025

4 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

Aware combines physical tracers and blockchain data to deliver verifiable textile traceability from fibre to finished product.
Digital Product Passports powered by Aware help brands meet EU regulations and build consumer trust through transparent supply chains.
Aware’s Asia expansion focuses on empowering producers with embedded traceability from the fibre level for scalable circularity.

The Aware Tracer is a physical marker embedded into any type of raw material at the source. The Aware scanner is used to authenticate the sustainable material anywhere, anytime.

Tracing It The Aware Tracer is a physical marker embedded into any type of raw material at the source. The Aware scanner is used to authenticate the sustainable material anywhere, anytime. Aware

texfash: Aware integrates physical tracers into raw materials and records supply chain data on a public blockchain, creating a 'phygital' traceability system. Could you elaborate on how this system enhances transparency and trust in sustainable textiles, and how it addresses the challenges of verifying sustainability claims in the industry?
Koen Warmerdam: Most sustainability claims today are easy to make and hard to verify. Aware solves that with a phygital traceability system: combining physical tracers in the material itself with digital records on a public blockchain.

This means every batch of fibre is both physically marked and digitally tracked. The tracer proves the material is what it claims to be. The blockchain logs every transformation step, automatically, immutably, and without third-party edits.

The result? A verified chain of custody, from fibre to final product. No more spreadsheets. No more guessing. Brands can prove their claims. Producers get credit for their work. And recyclers can trust what arrives.

Your partnership with Baichuan Resources Recycling focuses on combining recycled polyester with dope-dyeing technology. How does this collaboration contribute to reducing environmental impact, and what role does Aware's traceability play in ensuring the sustainability of the final products?
Koen Warmerdam: Our partnership with Baichuan tackles two major impact areas at once: material waste and dye pollution. By combining recycled polyester with dope-dyeing technology, they significantly reduce water usage, energy consumption, and chemical discharge, three of the most resource-intensive parts of textile production.

While physical tracers aren’t compatible with dope-dyeing, Aware enables traceability through digital batch-level data. Each lot of recycled material is registered on our platform and accompanied by verified documentation at key transformation steps, capturing fibre origin, dye method, and impact metrics in a Digital Product Passport.

This gives brands more than a sustainability claim, they get verifiable proof. And producers like Baichuan can showcase their innovation through trusted, tamper-proof data. It’s a model for what circularity needs next: measurable impact, even without physical tagging.

The UPV Textiles Act mandates increased recycling and reuse of textiles. How does Aware assist brands and importers in complying with such regulations, and what impact do you foresee this having on the industry's approach to circularity?
Koen Warmerdam: Brands and importers now need to prove what happens to their products, not just state intentions. That’s where Aware comes in. Our platform automates compliance by creating a verifiable chain of custody from fibre to final product. Each material batch is tokenised, traced, and tied to its original source, making it easy to generate audit-ready reports, Digital Product Passports, and proof of recycled content.

This reduces admin load and eliminates guesswork. Brands can instantly access the data regulators require. Producers get credit for verified inputs. And circularity stops being a black box.

In the long run, we see regulation accelerating a new standard: proof-backed sustainability, not promises. Aware exists to make that standard simple, scalable, and trusted.

Digital Product Passports are becoming essential for transparency in the textile industry. How does Aware facilitate the integration of supply chain data into DPPs, and what benefits does this offer to brands and consumers seeking sustainable products?
Koen Warmerdam: Digital Product Passports alone will not revolutionise our industry, the data they contain will. Aware makes Digital Product Passports (DPPs) automatic, accurate, and verifiable. As supply chain data is logged, starting at the fibre level, it’s sealed to a digital token and carried forward with each batch. Our system integrates this data into a DPP.

For brands, this means effortless compliance with upcoming EU regulations, faster onboarding, and credible sustainability proof. For consumers, it means one scan shows the full story: where the product came from, what it’s made of, and how it was produced.

DPPs become more than a regulatory checkbox, they become a trust layer. And with Aware, that trust is built on data, not declarations.

Aware has achieved the integration of its tracer into recycled polyester filament yarn. What were the key challenges in developing this technology, and how does it advance the goal of full traceability in recycled textiles?
Koen Warmerdam: Embedding a tracer into recycled polyester filament yarn was a major technical milestone. The key challenge was stability: ensuring the tracer could survive high heat during extrusion without degrading or altering yarn quality. We also had to ensure detectability, making sure the tracer remained readable at every stage, even after blending, dyeing, or weaving.

Solving this means recycled materials can now carry their own proof of origin, physically, not just on paper. It closes a critical gap in the circular economy: recycled inputs are now traceable from entry to end product. This moves the industry closer to true closed-loop accountability.

Koen Warmerdam

Co-Founder and Brand Director

Aware

Digital Product Passports alone will not revolutionise our industry, the data they contain will. Aware makes Digital Product Passports (DPPs) automatic, accurate, and verifiable. As supply chain data is logged, starting at the fibre level, it’s sealed to a digital token and carried forward with each batch. Our system integrates this data into a DPP.

Cotton Supply Aware is an award winning global traceability solution for the fashion and textile industry. Their Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a world’s first game-changing phygital technology that revolutionises the industry. Aware

With recent funding from Presstar Capital, Aware aims to expand within Asia's sustainable textile production industry. What strategies are in place to scale your traceability solutions in this region, and how do you plan to address the unique challenges of diverse supply chains in Asian markets?
Koen Warmerdam: At Aware, we believe real change in the textile sector starts at the source, with the producers. That’s why our expansion strategy, backed by Presstar Capital, is built around a producer-first, fibre-forward model.

We begin where others don’t: at the fibre level. By embedding traceability from the moment sustainable materials are created, we give producers the power to prove their standards, before brands or regulators even ask.

In diverse, fast-moving Asian supply chains, this matters. With one simple data entry, they generate a digital token that carries their name and proof all the way downstream.

We’re not layering on another compliance system. We’re unlocking value from the work producers already do, making their materials visible, verifiable, and valued in every product story.

Most sustainability claims today are easy to make and hard to verify. Aware solves that with a phygital traceability system: combining physical tracers in the material itself with digital records on a public blockchain.

Subir Ghosh

SUBIR GHOSH is a Kolkata-based independent journalist-writer-researcher who writes about environment, corruption, crony capitalism, conflict, wildlife, and cinema. He is the author of two books, and has co-authored two more with others. He writes, edits, reports and designs. He is also a professionally trained and qualified photographer.

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