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Can I see your (product) passport please!

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23 Apr, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

Digital Product Passports that allow consumers to scan a product’s label to read up on its sustainability credentials and understand how to repair and recycle it are one step closer. In time, these passports will likely apply to everyday products like clothing and phones as the world moves to a more circular economy.

Upping the circular economy game in the EU and locally

Agreed in principle by the European Parliament in December 2023, the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) will require almost any product in the EU market to provide proof that it’s sustainable, durable and recyclable. This means that local businesses need to up their circular economy game to continue to trade with the European Union.

thinkstep-anz circular economy expert Jim Goddin said, “Now is the time for businesses to get ready.” Goddin draws on experience gained from many years of working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading global circular economy organisation. The Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist moved from the UK to New Zealand in late 2023 to fulfil a lifelong dream and to support businesses in New Zealand and Australia. “There is a lot of interest in the circular economy in both countries, and it’s exciting to be here,” he said.

“The circular economy is a concept that changes how we produce and consume goods,” Goddin explained. “It moves us away from the current ‘linear’ model of making, using and throwing away.” It dramatically reduces waste, makes the most of resources, extends the life of products and recovers more materials.

Not the same as recycling

“The circular economy isn’t the same as recycling,” Goddin said. “While recycling is an important solution and converts waste into reusable material, the recycling process can sometimes devalue that material.” For example, we can’t make a milk bottle from purely recycled materials. There is always virgin material needed.

The circular economy aims to prevent waste and pollution from being created in the first place by designing products so that they, and the materials that make them up, can be used for as long as possible at their highest value. This means thinking beyond recycling and looking at opportunities for consumers to repair and reuse products and for manufacturers to remanufacture them.

Information for a more circular economy

However, one of the greatest challenges to making progress with a circular economy is the lack of data and transparency across supply chains. “We need to know what materials products are made of to keep them in service for longer, to work out how to reuse or repair them, to know if they can be safely composted, or to separate them effectively to maximise the value of recycled materials,” Goddin said. This is where Digital Product Passports come into play.

What the ESPR means for Australian businesses

Businesses trading with the EU — or supplying those who do — will need a Digital Product Passport (DPP).

  • The DPP tracks where a product has been over its entire lifecycle. It’s a digital record that contains information about its ‘journey’ and what it is made from.
  • Companies can apply this information to use resources more efficiently, shore up their supply chains, cut down on waste, extend the lifespan of a product and improve recycling initiatives. Consumers can make more informed decisions.
     

Businesses may need to provide data on several aspects:

  • How durable the product is. Can it be reused, upgraded or repaired?
  • Whether it contains substances that cannot be circulated (passed on). Examples include coatings that prevent composting or chemicals that prevent specific uses (eg, food applications).
  • How energy- and resource-efficient it is.
  • How much recycled content it contains.
  • Whether it can be remanufactured or recycled.
  • What its carbon footprint is.

Where to start:

See this as an opportunity

This isn’t just another hurdle but a chance for you to tell your product’s story and for your customers to understand its value. What story do you want them to hear, and how do you back that up with evidence to give them confidence to believe it?

Prepare in advance for the data you’ll need

A lot of your data will need to be verified by qualified third parties against established standards. This will take time.

Do your homework

Investigate how you will structure, store and share this information. Many digital platforms are emerging to help you do this. The platforms will eventually all need to work together.

Consider the lifetime of your data

How will you maintain the data? What additional value could you get from it?

Make yourself stand out

Think about your competition. How will the sustainability and circularity of your products stand out from the crowd?

When will I need the passport?

Batteries and vehicles, textiles, electronics and ICT, furniture, plastics, construction materials and chemicals will be the first industries that will need to get their passports sorted. While the final timeline is still being worked on, 2026/7 looks likely for the first industries to adopt DPPs. Others are expected to follow suit by 2030.

Growing up on the remote Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, Jim Goddin, Head of Circular Economy, thinkstep-anz, was interested in sustainability from an early age. From watching Europe’s largest experimental wind turbine from the windows of his small school to admiring a stream-powered electricity generator at his parents’ property, he was also fascinated by engineering. As a leading expert in circular economy, he has collaborated with prestigious organisations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. He has worked extensively on developing eco-design tools like calculators that measure circularity and assess business risks resulting from critical materials and hazardous substances legislation.

Image credit: iStock.com/BlackSalmon

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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