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IOTA Tech Boosts Circular Economy
TL;DR:
Teaming up with Digimarc we’re providing distributed ledger technology (DLT) to help track and trace the recycling journey of plastics. The use case involves collecting and recycling farm plastic waste, converting it into bioplastics used in consumer products, like plastic bags. It implements DPPs for both intermediate and final products, ensuring B2B and B2C verification respectively, and uses the GS1 EPCIS 2.0 standard for recording events in the supply chain, with proofs stored on the IOTA ledger to support claims about product provenance.
Plastic mulch film is integral to modern agriculture. It provides essential functions such as suppressing weeds, conserving water, and retaining methyl bromide, a powerful fumigant and ozone depleter. However, the resulting plastic waste poses significant environmental challenges, often ending up in landfills or as pollutants.
A solution is to recycle it into biodegradable plastic (bioplastic) products. However, the process – involving multiple stakeholders and advanced technology – is complicated, expensive, and subject to different national regulations: in 2022, the OECD reportedthat “only 9% of plastic waste is recycled while 22% is mismanaged.” An immutable and verifiable solution for accurately tracking the journey of plastic waste as it undergoes the recycling process is therefore highly valuable.
As part of the European Blockchain PCP, funded by the European Commission, the IOTA Foundation teamed up with enterprise software and services provider Digimarc, and Agro2Circular, a European project dedicated to upcycling agri-food waste and plastics with around 50 partners, to develop the Digital Product Passport (DPP) solution prototype for Plastics. It aims to support the circular economy by meticulously tracking and documenting the lifecycle of plastic mulch films used in the agri-food industry.
Introducing Digital Product Passports
Digital Product Passports (DPPs) ensure transparency and traceability in the lifecycle of products. The DPP for Plastics prototype solution contains data on the lifecycle of plastic from its disposal by waste producers to its transformation into new market-ready products by manufacturers, encompassing intermediate commercial products along the way (such as recycled polyethylene pellets).
Chain of Events Leading to the DPP for Plastics
Waste Production Stage
Let’s start with the Waste Producer. Imagine a farm, that uses plastic mulching films for crop protection. Like all participants in this step-by-step description, the farm has its own decentralized identifier (DID) on the IOTA ledger.
After harvest, the farm collects the used plastic, documenting the type and date of use as a supply-chain event. This data helps track the origin and composition of the waste. The farm signs the data with its unique DID to create a signed JSON document, expressed using EPCIS 2.0, and similar to a verifiable credential (VC). The document is hashed to create a digital fingerprint of the dataset, and the hash is stored in a block on the IOTA Tangle. The block is confirmed on the Tangle and read again together with a Proof of Inclusion (PoI), which allows the farm to prove to a verifier – which can be any other participant in the recycling supply chain because all participants can also act as data verifiers – that the block was part of the past Tangle at a certain point in time, even if this part has already been pruned from network nodes to limit storage demand.
Waste Management Stage
Next, an authorized Waste Manager picks up the plastic waste. It records when and where the waste was collected and its journey to the recycling facility as a supply chain event.
Recycling Stage
The waste arrives at an authorized Recycler, which applies a treatment to the plastic to produce new raw materials. The recycler logs the recycling process, including the type of recycling and the output materials. These details are made verifiable for transparency.
Manufacturing Stage
These recycled materials are then supplied to a Manufacturer, which transforms the recycled plastic into new products, such as eco-friendly packaging or bio-plastic used as mulch film. The new products are given unique DPPs, where all information recorded along the supply chain journey so far is stored via a link between Digimarc’s product identity management platform Illuminate and each supply chain event. It documents the materials used, the manufacturing process, and the final product’s specifications. It also verifies the DPPs of the raw materials to ensure sustainability.
Quality Assurance
Part of the processes, as well as the product’s specifications, can be certified by a third-party Quality Assurer. This is also signed by the corresponding DID and linked to the product’s DPP information.
Consumer Interaction
Consumers, which in this case study are largely B2B entities, buy these manufactured bioplastics – for example, a farmer buys the bioplastic mulch film. The consumers scan the QR code on the packaging to access the DPP, verifying the product’s provenance and sustainability. This transparency builds trust with their own customers.
Auditing
Finally, an auditor steps in to verify the accuracy of the records. They ensure compliance with environmental regulations, protecting against fraud and identifying potential operational improvements.
Ensuring Trust and Transparency
Throughout this process, the EBSI Trust Framework models and verifies the identities and relationships of all actors. Using GS1 EPCIS 2.0 standards, supply chain events such as shipping, receiving, packing, transforming, and classifying are captured and recorded. Each product is assigned a GS1 Digital Link through Illuminate, linking all traceability events to construct the DPP view.
Digital Link to the DPP Through a QR
The physical products are identified by a GS1 Digital Link using a carrier of choice, in this case, a QR code, that is linked to their digital passports, allowing easy access and verification via a DPP web interface. This interface renders the status and information of the DPP at any given time, updating it accordingly, e.g. if a DPP needs to be invalidated, an additional business event marks it as obsolete, and this update is reflected in the DPP web interface.
In this system, every party, from the waste producer to the auditor, plays a critical role in ensuring the transparency, traceability, and sustainability of agricultural plastics, supporting a robust circular economy.
Conclusion
By leveraging blockchain technology, our DPP solution prototype for plastics ensures transparency, traceability, and integrity in the lifecycle of agricultural plastics, promoting a circular economy and reducing environmental impact. This not only enhances sustainability but also provides valuable insights for businesses and consumers alike. You can read Digimarc’s account of the DPP here.
Our Technology Adoption Team is leading the commercialization of the DPP for electronics prototype solution in collaboration with a network of partners – our first market-ready solution is the recently-announced Eviden Digital Passport Solution powered by IOTA – to track the lifecycle of physical and virtual products: from (automotive) batteries (for electric vehicles and beyond), plastics, rubber, tires, and chemicals to electronic or virtual assets such as intellectual property rights. For more information about these opportunities, please contact [email protected].
Links in this Article
Epic Gardening Website: 18 Pros and Cons of Using Plastic Mulch in the Garden
BBC Website: Why Food’s Plastic Problem is Bigger Than We Realise
OECD Press Release: Plastic Pollution is Growing Relentlessly as Waste Management and Recycling Fall Short, says OECD
Website: Digimarc.com
Website: Agro2Circular.eu
European Commission Web Page: European Blockchain Pre-Commercial Procurement
IOTA Foundation Blog Post: Introducing Eviden Digital Passport Solution Powered By IOTA
IOTA Foundation Blog Post: Ratification of the EPCIS 2.0 Standard
European Commission / EBSI Web Page: Issuer trust model
Digimarc Blog Post: EPCIS 2.0: Transforming the Global Supply Chain
Video: GS1 Digital Link Layer Cake
Digimarc Web Page: Digimarc Illuminate Platform
Digimarc Blog Post: Piloting Digital Product Passport for Plastic Recycling