The European Union has mandated that certain products must carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP), containing key information about carbon footprint and end-of-life management. The DPP will enable product circularity through the sharing of end-of-life information and by fostering circular ways of doing business. Avery Dennison digital identification technologies will empower companies to implement DPP, making products more circular and supply chains more transparent.
The EU currently generates 2.1 billion tons of waste every year.
The European economy is linear. Most resources are used once and then discarded. This “take-make-use-dispose” style of consumption cannot be sustained, as there are simply not enough resources or raw materials to support current rates of consumption and disposal.
Waste is also bad for businesses. Companies currently lose billions in revenue every year from discarded inventory and overproduction. Further, lack of material circularity makes Europe overly dependent on resource imports, exposing its supply chains to geopolitical tensions.
(Eurostat, Generation of waste by waste category, hazardousness and NACE Rev. 2 activity, 2023)
The textiles industry:
The European economy’s problem child
It is estimated that 4–9% of textiles placed on the EU market are destroyed before use. This equals to between 264000 to 594000 tons of textiles destroyed each year.
Less than 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new textiles at the end of life.
(European Commission, Circular Economy Action Plan, 2020)
8%
Of stock, on average, is discarded annually
$163b
Worth of inventory is wasted each year before it is even purchased by consumers
(Avery Dennison, The Missing Billions, 2022)
We need to move away from linear consumption patterns for the sake of the planet, but also for the sake of the bottom line. Yet, the status quo does not provide producers with sufficient incentives to make products more circular.
We need to change our perceptions of waste. If managed properly, waste can be a valuable resource to create new products and avoid extracting virgin materials.
70%
Increase in global waste production is expected if no action is taken
(European Commission, Circular Economy Action Plan, 2020)
e-waste: A European Gold Rush?
There is an estimated stock of unused and waste mobile phones of 700 million, sitting idly in households across the European Union.
(European Commission, Press Release, 2023)
The Avery Dennison “Zero Waste Futures” white paper identifies how we can rethink the economics of waste to build a zero-waste future. We believe that by creating value in waste, embedding sustainable design into products in order to extend their lifespans, and enhancing recyclability, a zero-waste future makes good business sense.
Europe’s regulators understood this and have brought forward legislation to tackle the problem of waste and promote the transition to a circular economy. Legislation includes rules targeting textiles and their collection and sorting; new rules pushing for much higher recycling rates of packaging waste; rules that mandate repair over replacement of products on the EU market; and rules promoting more durable, reusable, reparable and sustainable products by design.
Importantly, sustainability is what consumers demand.
Read more on PPWR and how Avery Dennison is driving circularity here.
78%
Of consumers believe companies should be helping them make decisions that improve environmental outcomes
74%
Of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging
(Avery Dennison, The Missing Billions, 2022)
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) forms part of the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and is a key pillar of the Circular Economy Action Plan. Its purpose is to provide information about products’ environmental sustainability to consumers and waste operators to facilitate the transition to a circular economy, improve consumer awareness, and enable more seamless reuse, resale and recycling of products.
Businesses will need to assign a digital twin to their physical products via data carriers, like a QR code, NFC or RFID tags, to provide the required product information to consumers, retailers, enforcement authorities and waste managers.
The DPP aims to achieve higher uptake of repair, more exact sorting and higher rates of recyclability, which are all critical to ensuring their sustainable use, prolonged life, and circularity.
The bar has been set. But are companies in the EU ready to embrace the Digital Product Passport and adopt sustainable practices? Read on to learn more about business concerns.
Watch as the Head of Enterprise Sustainability for Avery Dennison, Michael Colarossi, explains how Digital Product Passports are the key to more efficient and sustainable supply chains, and not just a compliance obligation.
DPPs will enable circularity by:
Europe is facing a challenge to decarbonise its economy by 2050. EU regulators have mandated that businesses must act more sustainably. Avery Dennison is well-positioned to help drive this circular revolution. Europe can make sustainable business practices the profitable choice by leveraging Avery Dennison resources and the company’s materials science and digital identification technologies.
Decarbonisation shouldn’t equate to deindustrialisation. By connecting the physical to the digital, Avery Dennison digital identification technologies can help ensure that compliance with sustainability rules lead to profitable performance.
Avery Dennison is proactively developing technologies that will enable the EU’s Green Transition and turn compliance with sustainability legislation into a competitive advantage. Our digital solutions and products such as the DPP as a service (DPPaaS), provide brands with the tools required to gain full visibility over their supply chains.
The dawn of a new legislative cycle in 2024-2029 will bring a new vision for the future. The 2024-2029 legislative cycle will come with a new priority: competitiveness. A winning EU Industrial Strategy will combine European Union (EU) competitiveness with circular business models.
