Digital Product Passports: Exploring Product information and its role in fostering the Circular Economy

Abstract: The Circular Economy (CE) came into existence due to the increasing environmental concerns produced by the legacy linear economy which consumes too many resources and generates a lot of waste. The CE is initiated on the ideas of reducing, reusing, and recycling resources by utilising the product information. Thus, this study investigates the product information which is to be carried by Digital Product Passport (DPP) and its role in enabling the CE by utilising the knowledge management theoretical framework. Following a qualitative approach, by conducting semi-structured interviews with seven participants primarily in the retail sector. This research study analysis shows that DPPs are a fantastic digital tool to modernize and digitalize product information, which gets enriched when the product moves across various stages in the CE. Further to this, this study identifies the perceived benefits and challenges which an organisation can foresee while adopting DPPs. We conclude that DPP helps industry toward more circularity, there are numerous challenges highlighted by this study for adoption to be further scope for research in finding the solutions to overcome these for smoother implementation of DPPs.