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The Digital Product Passport is becoming a reality in Europe

#circular economy #environment
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To improve repair and recycling and reduce the environmental impacts of goods, Europe has officially adopted the Digital Product Passport. This initiative will streamline access to information on the full lifecycles of products on the European market. The European project CIRPASS, coordinated by CEA-List, proposed a blueprint for the connected information system that will support the circular economy.

The project focused primarily on batteries, electronics, and textiles—industries with high recycling potential and significant environmental footprints. The proposed information system consists of a globally distributed database, though its large-scale deployment faces technical challenges, particularly in industries with limited digital maturity:

  • Developing interoperable data-sharing systems;
  • Implementing distributed approaches for identity management and data access permissions;
  • Creating tools to support dual-purpose objectives (both regulatory and non-regulatory). A technical specification for the system was developed in collaboration with the European Commission’s inter-directorate committee (GROW, CONNECT, ENV, DIGIT).

 

As a critical piece of digital infrastructure for European industry, the passport unlocks new opportunities in data management and modeling, interoperability across data spaces, industrial digital twins, environmental impact assessment for products and services, and trusted distributed systems.

To support passport deployment across four targeted sectors, CEA-List is now leading the CIRPASS-2 project (2024–2027), which includes a comprehensive evaluation of the system’s environmental impact at every stage.

The adoption of the Digital Product Passport will lead to significant gains in high-purity recycled materials:

from 6% to 78%

for plastics
from 13% to 84%

for aluminum
from 24% to 81%

for steel

Source : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:ccd71fda-b1b5-11ec-9d96-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF

CIRPASS and CIRPASS-2 are at the crossroads of technological innovation and environmental considerations.

Rebecca Cabean

Carolynn Bernier

Expert and research engineer — CEA-List

CIRPASS is one of the most important projects for meeting EU objectives around product sustainability, the circular economy, supply chain traceability, and the domestic market.

Ilias Iakovidis

DG connect — European Commission

Contributors to this article:

  • Carolynn BERNIER, expert and research engineer at CEA-List
  • Ilias IAKOVIDIS, DG connect at EUROPEAN COMMISSION

 

See also

#circular economy #CIRPASS
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