Digital Product Passports in promoting Circular Economy: A Conceptual Data Model

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) aims to enhance product lifecycle transparency, thus promoting a more environmental and social product sustainability. A DPP typically includes information on a product’s characteristics, materials used and their provenance, and the company that manufactured it, along with information on how to dispose of the product ensuring that all parts or components that can be recycled are sent for recycling. The information on a DPP can be very diverse, and depends not only on the type of product but also on the objective that the authorities intend to achieve by implementing a DPP. After a brief review of related works, this paper discusses the conceptual model of a DPP, isolating different components of the model depending on their intended purpose. Some questions on future directions for the DPP are also raised, and some possible directions are proposed.