Digital passports: Moving beyond a chasing arrows stamp

Recycling plant operators and household consumers alike have expressed frustration at what is often perceived as an unhelpful and lightly regulated system of determining recyclability. Most forms of packaging contain a chasing arrows recycling symbol (and in the case of plastic a resin identification), but often this does not guarantee acceptance in a recycling bin.

Elena Rotzokou, a global extended producer responsibility (EPR) researcher with United Kingdom-based consultancy Ecoveritas, sees a looming European Digital Product Passport (DPP) initiative as potentially providing a more helpful option.

Writes Rotsozkou in a recent essay, “The unprecedented [amount] of EPR legislation that has been greenlighted since the advent of 2023 across Europe no doubt signals a new level of environmental awareness on a governmental, rather than merely social level.”

May are tied to the European Green Deal, says Rotsozkou, which she says has an “ambitious purview.” She is hopeful that the DPP system can offer “data transparency and accessibility [that can] raise awareness and encourage environmentally friendly action across all parties involved in a product’s life cycle: manufacturers, distributors, and end consumers.”

In answer to the question, “What are digital product passports?” the consultant writes: “As the term implies, each product placed by a business on the EU market will need to carry its individual information passport, access to which will need to be provided via a data carrier to a unique product identifier (UID). The EU aims for a 2026 date by which to implement the legislation across three industries: apparel, batteries, and consumer electronics – with more to follow.”

Rotzokou says the ability of anyone to access DPP information should be straightforward. “All a consumer needs to do is scan the product QR code with their phone to access DPP information. Interested parties should be able to access information relating to raw materials, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and recycling options.”

Corporations seemingly will do much of the heavy lifting. “Measures will be taken to implement data collection and combination systems to meet the reporting requirements for the passports. Whoever on the supply chain brings a product to the market will carry the responsibility for guaranteeing DPP data accuracy,” writes Rotzokou.

Some of these obligations fall on the packaging industry. Companies in that sector will face “a range of data availability requirements [including] product and product packaging weight and volume, durability, reusability, reparability, the presence of substances inhibiting circularity, energy and resource efficiency, recycled content, remanufacturing, waste generation, resource use, microplastic release and carbon footprints,” says Rotzokou.

Adds the consultant, “Legislation pertaining to data accessibility and traceability information has already affected EPR laws for plastics, and so DPPs should be a crowning moment in what is already an unfolding process. If all obligated parties cooperate effectively, digital passports might come to be an inextricable part of products, to the point where, ultimately, all products come to life equipped with passports.”