POLYPROBLEM report: The Circularity Code

Challenges for packaging distributors KNOWING WHAT’S IN IT The digital product passport also requires a cultural change In order to understand how a plastic product is made and how it can best be recycled after its use, you need to compile a lot of information. Sounds easy enough? It’s not. The plastic packaging a product is contained in first goes through many production steps before that product reaches the store shelf. The plastics manufacturer provides the raw material while the compounder enriches it with additives to achieve the desired properties. The processor then “builds” the product, for example, a container for a cosmetic lotion. Finally, the bottler usually prints colors onto it or applies a label. “Each of these processing steps has an impact on the product’s recyclability. The relevant data is generated at different points in the value chain, but has hardly been automated to date,” says Dagmar Glatz, describing the challenge. She is in charge of sustainability at Germany’s dm drugstore chain and faces the issue on a daily basis. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) stipulates that packaging must be made of at least 55% recyclate and be fully recyclable or reusable by 2030 at the latest. And it’s the distributor’s job to prove it. “Of course, we can only guarantee this if we know exactly what happens at every stage of production,” explains Dagmar Glatz. And this is exactly where the major problem lies. “It’s not uncommon for data sheets to be sent back and forth as PDFs,” reports the dm sustainability manager. It’s no wonder then that the digital product passport is currently a real buzz phrase in the industry. It refers to a digital application that automatically collects production data of the material being used, its properties and processing for a specific product, directly from the machines of all companies involved in production and prepares it according to a common standard. There is obviously no lack of technical solutions, but implementing them is still a major issue since it requires a new willingness to cooperate across sectors and companies. As the managing director of ProData GmbH, a company that offers R-Cycle, a solution for creating digital product passports, Heino Claussen-Markefka knows what he’s talking about. R-Cycle is a digital traceability standard for plastic products. The data service can obtain the relevant recycling data for a product directly from the machine, actually, from all companies involved in the production of the item in question. This data is collated and forms the basis of the digital product passport. So much for theory. When it comes to practical implementation, however, it is not the technical issues that are causing problems, but legal ones. “Companies are reluctant to share their production data if only because it raises the question of who is allowed to store and evaluate this data, not to mention how to protect trade secrets,” says Claussen-Markefka. This means you do not only need new technology, but above all a new understanding of cooperation among companies. After all, the idea behind the digital product passport is to share product information across the entire value chain. 7

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