EP4732221A1 - Methods and systems enabling circularity for packaging materials - Google Patents

Methods and systems enabling circularity for packaging materials

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Publication number
EP4732221A1
EP4732221A1 EP24729868.0A EP24729868A EP4732221A1 EP 4732221 A1 EP4732221 A1 EP 4732221A1 EP 24729868 A EP24729868 A EP 24729868A EP 4732221 A1 EP4732221 A1 EP 4732221A1
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Prior art keywords
data
packaging material
decentral
access
identifier
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EP24729868.0A
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German (de)
French (fr)
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Thorsten Dikmann
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BASF SE
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BASF SE
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Publication of EP4732221A1 publication Critical patent/EP4732221A1/en
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L63/00—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security
    • H04L63/10—Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security for controlling access to devices or network resources
    • H04L63/102—Entity profiles
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
    • G06Q10/083—Shipping
    • G06Q10/0833—Tracking
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/30—Administration of product recycling or disposal
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q50/00—Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
    • G06Q50/04—Manufacturing
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
    • B29B—PREPARATION OR PRETREATMENT OF THE MATERIAL TO BE SHAPED; MAKING GRANULES OR PREFORMS; RECOVERY OF PLASTICS OR OTHER CONSTITUENTS OF WASTE MATERIAL CONTAINING PLASTICS
    • B29B17/00—Recovery of plastics or other constituents of waste material containing plastics
    • B29B2017/0089—Recycling systems, wherein the flow of products between producers, sellers and consumers includes at least a recycling step, e.g. the products being fed back to the sellers or to the producers for recycling purposes
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L9/00—Cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols
    • H04L9/50—Cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Economics (AREA)
  • Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • Strategic Management (AREA)
  • Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Operations Research (AREA)
  • Development Economics (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Primary Health Care (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Sustainable Development (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
  • Computing Systems (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of sustainability, in particular to the field of packaging material re-use and recycling. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses, systems, decentral network nodes, packaging materials and computer elements for monitoring substances critical for recycling and re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof.

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS ENABLING CIRCULARITY FOR PACKAGING MATERIALS
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to the field of sustainability, in particular to the field of packaging material re-use and recycling. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses, systems, decentral network nodes, packaging materials and computer elements for monitoring substances critical for recycling and re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
For protecting goods in logistics and transportation, the usage of packaging material is inevitable - but at the same time a key environmental concern. Packaging is one of the main users of virgin materials and accounts for significant amounts of municipal solid waste. Recycling of packaging materials is challenging owing to the complexity in sorting the diverse set of waste packaging materials. The refeed of such waste packaging materials into chemical value chains is particularly challenging since chemical plants processing recyclate produced from such waste packaging materials are large scale plants with narrow feed specifications. Re-use of packaging material may be challenging owing to contaminations resulting from chemical products contained in such packaging materials. This hampers to reliably refeed used packaging materials into re-use chains and the built up of circular ecosystems to develop of a low- carbon circular economy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In an aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• collecting data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaging material includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof;
• providing one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage;
• generating access data associated with the material composition data;
• generating an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the access data;
• providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
In a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the apparatus comprising:
• a data collection interface configured to collect data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaging material includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof;
• an identifier providing interface configured to provide one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage;
• an access data generator configured to generate access data associated with the material composition data;
• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the access data;
• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material or the packaged product.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• receiving at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product,
• collecting via the at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product data related to the production of the packaged product, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaged product includes product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or the component thereof and one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product;
• generating access data associated with the product composition data;
• generating an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• providing the access element(s) to a decentral network for access to the product composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• a decentral network interface configured to receive at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product,
• a data collection interface configured to collect via the at least one decentral packaged product identifier data related to the production of the packaged product, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaged product includes product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or the component thereof and at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product;
• an access data generator configured to generate access data associated with the product composition data;
• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the product composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• receiving at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product, at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product and data related to a production of the packaged product, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaged product includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof,
• generating access data associated with the material composition data;
• generating an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• providing the access element(s) to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• a decentral network interface configured to receive at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product, at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product and data related to a production of the packaged product, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaged product includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof,
• an access data generator configured to generate access data associated with the material composition data;
• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material and wherein the packaged material is associated with a digital twin including a decentral identifier and packaging material data, the method comprising the steps of:
• receiving at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product and at least one decentral identifier associated with the product, wherein the at least one decentral identifier associated with the product is associated with product composition data relating to substances critical for re-use of the packaging material or component thereof,
• generating at least one relationship data set based on decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the decentral identifier(s) associated with the product;
• generating access data associated with the relationship data set;
• generating an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the product composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaged product.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material and wherein the packaged material is associated with a digital twin including a decentral identifier and packaging material data, the method comprising the steps of:
• a decentral network interface configured to provide at least one use trigger including at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaging material used to produce the packaged product and at least one decentral identifier associated with the product, wherein the at least one decentral identifier associated with the product is associated with product composition data relating to substances critical for re-use of the packaging material or component thereof,
• a relationship data generator configured to generate at least one relationship data set based on decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the decentral identifier(s) associated with the product;
• an access data generator configured to generate access data associated with the relationship data set;
• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data;
• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the product composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaged product.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method for acc, in particular a computer-implemented method, essing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps:
• providing a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• gathering based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein, access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• requesting - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled or re-used, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the apparatus comprising: • an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• an access data retriever configured to gather based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• a decentral network interface configured to request - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled or re-used, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material contained a packaged product, the method comprising the steps:
• providing a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled;
• gathering based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein access data related to the decentral packaging associated with the packaging material to be recycled;
• requesting - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage;
• controlling and/or monitoring the process for recycling the packaging material or the component thereof based on the accessed data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, and/or the data related to the production of the packaged product, e.g. Product composition data.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material contained a packaged product, the apparatus comprising:
• an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled;
• an access data retriever configured to retrieve based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled; • a decentral network interface configured to request - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage;
• a controlling and/or monitoring interface configured to control and/or monitor the process for recycling the packaging material or the component thereof based on the accessed data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, and/or the data related to the production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for controlling and/or monitoring a process for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material contained a packaged product, the method comprising the steps:
• providing a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be re-used;
• gathering based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaged product contained within the packaging material;
• requesting - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage;
• controlling and/or monitoring the process for re-using, e.g. cleaning and/or refurbishing, the packaging material or the component thereof based on the accessed data related to the production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material contained a packaged product, the apparatus comprising:
• an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled;
• an access data retriever configured to gather based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses disclosed herein access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaged product contained within the packaging material;
• a decentral network interface configured to request - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage; • a controlling and/or monitoring interface configured to control and/or monitor the process for re-using, e.g. cleaning and/or refurbishing, the packaging material or the component thereof based on the accessed data related to the production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a sorting system including the apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a packaging material or a component thereof as disclosed herein and a sorting apparatus configured to sort the packaging material into at least one waste fraction.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a cleaning system including the apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for re-using a packaging material or a component thereof as disclosed herein and a cleaning apparatus configured to perform one or more cleaning steps to clean the used packaging material.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral network node configured to provide an access element according to the methods as disclosed herein.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral network node configured to access data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, and/or to access data related to the production of the packaged product, e.g. product composition data, according to the methods disclosed herein.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a packaging material associated with an access element generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program, or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by a computing node or a computing system, direct the computing node or computing system to carry out the steps of the computer-implemented methods disclosed herein.
In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program, or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein, direct the apparatuses or systems to carry out steps the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein are configured to execute.
Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the systems, apparatuses, packaging materials, decentral network nodes, and computer elements lined out above and below lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.
Embodiments To improve recycling of packaging materials and the quality of recyclate, the sharing of data to monitor substances critical for recycling, e.g. substances having a negative influence on the recycling, is crucial. The same applies to the re-use of packaging materials and the number of times a packaging material may be reused, for example by cleaning and/or refurbishing the used packaging material such that it can be re-used. However, to date data sharing in material chains is not standardized by way of communication protocols to controlled access to such data by participants of the material loop. Decentral networks allow for controlled peer-to-peer communication between participants of material chains. By making data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging materials, e.g. material composition data and/or data product composition data, available per production stage via access elements, more efficient and reliable recycling or re-use of packaging materials can be ensured through accessing such composition data in a controlled manner.
In particular, by collecting data related to contaminants for recycling or re-use at the production stage of the packaging material and/or the packaged product and providing access to such data via access elements through a decentral network sharing of composition data with participants of the material loop is enabled. Further in particular, by using relationship data sets stored decentral per participant of the material loop allows to recursively reconstruct the bill of materials only for those parts of the data that is relevant to the recycling or re-use of packaging materials such as the contaminants for recycling and previously contained products for the re-use. Further in particular, by providing such data relevant to selected participants, such as to recyclers, provides producers with the required control over sensitive production information. Further in particular, by providing such data relevant to the recycling process and the recyclate quality allows for more targeted data sharing resulting in more reliable and efficient recycling of plastic articles.
In particular by generating history relationship data sets stored decentral allows to determine previously stored products and associated ingredients hampering re-use, hence allowing to tailor the cleaning or refurbishing process of the used packaging material. This allows to prolong the use time of the re-usable packaging material because adequate cleaning and/or refurbishing processes may be determined, hence ensuring that impurities negatively influencing the purity of the product packaged within the re-used packaging material are efficiently and effectively removed during the cleaning and/or refurbishing process.
In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and/or examples.
Substances critical for recycling (e.g. critical substances) may include substances that are contained in the packaging material. Critical substances may be contained in the packaging material due to the use of production input(s) containing said critical substances. Critical substances may be contained in the packaging material by passing over from the product contained within the packaging material. For instance, critical substances contained in the product stored within the packaging material may pass over to the packaging material being in contact with the product. Critical substance(s) for recycling may impede the quality of recyclate produced by the recycling process. Critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to the recycling process. Critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to the use of the recyclate. Critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to the recycling process and the use of the recyclate. Critical substances for recycling may impede the quality of the used packaging material in terms of re-use of such packaging material.
The critical substance(s) for recycling may include substances specific for one or more recycling process(es). The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a chemical, thermal or physical recycling process. The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a specific chemical recycling process, e.g. specific recycling process for recycling plastic packaging material, such as a recycling process for producing a hydrocarbon recyclate, a chemical recycling process for producing a recyclate mixture including at least hydrogen and carbon monoxide, a chemical recycling process for producing a monomer recyclate or a solvent-based recycling process to produce a polymer recyclate.
The critical substance(s) for recycling may include substances specific for one or more uses of the recyclate produced by the recycling process. The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a chemical recycling process producing a recyclate for a petrochemical process. The petrochemical process may include at least one process configured to break saturated hydrocarbons at least partially into unsaturated hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbon recyclate may be produced by pyrolysis. Critical substances for recycling may include sulfur, halogens, oxygen, phosphorus, metals and inorganics such as aluminum, antinomy, barium, calcium chromium, copper, iron, potassium, sodium, lead, silicon, titanium, zinc, arsine, mercury, nickel, vanadium, or combinations thereof.
Packaging material may include any packaging items of any materials that are intended to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery or presentation of products. The packaging materials may can be differentiated into packaging formats based on their function, material and design. Packaging materials may include items and components thereof that are necessary to contain, support or preserve the product throughout its lifetime without being an integral part of the product which is intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together with the product. Packaging materials may include ancillary elements to an item necessary to contain, support or preserve the product throughout its lifetime without being an integral part of the product that are hung directly on, or attached to, the product and that perform a packaging function without being an integral part of the product which is intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together with the product. Packaging materials may include items designed and intended to be filled with a product at the point of sale, provided that they perform a packaging function. Packaging materials may include disposable items sold, filled or designed and intended to be filled at the point of sale, provided that they perform a packaging function. Packaging materials may include transport packaging conceived so as to facilitate handling and transport of a number of sales units or grouped packages to prevent physical handling and transport damage. Packaging materials may include composite packaging materials, e.g. a unit of packaging made of two or more different materials which cannot be separated manually and therefore form a single integral unit. Packaging materials may include packaging’s capable of undergoing physical, chemical, thermal or biological decomposition such that most of the finished compost ultimately decomposes into carbon dioxide, mineral salts, biomass and water. Packaging materials may include plastic. Plastic may refer to a polymer to which additives or other substances may have been added, and which is capable of functioning as a main structural component of packaging. Polymer may refer to a substance consisting of molecules characterized by the sequence of one or more types of monomer units. Such molecules must be distributed over a range of molecular weights wherein differences in the molecular weight are primarily attributable to differences in the number of monomer units. Examples of plastics include polyethylene (PE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear LDPE (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polyoxymethylene (POM), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), poly butylene terephthalate (PBT), aery lonitrile- butadiene-styrene (ABS), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyurethane (PU), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polystyrene (PS), polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or polycarbonate (PC). Packaging materials may include plastic carrier bags, such as lightweight plastic carrier bags with varying wall thicknesses and thick plastic carrier bags with varying wall thicknesses. Packaging materials may include pallet units. Packaging materials may include intermediate bulk containers (IBCs). Packaging materials may include tank units. Packaging materials may include silo units. Packaging materials may include overseas containers. Packaging materials may include tank vessels. Packaging materials may include railway cars.
Recycling may refer to any recovery operation by which waste packaging materials (e.g. any packaging material which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard) are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. Recycling may include the reprocessing of organic material. Recycling of packaging materials may be performed on single-use packaging materials, e.g. packaging materials which is not reusable packaging materials.
In contrast to recycling, re-use may refer to any operation by which a reusable packaging material is used again for the same purpose for which it was conceived. For instance, an intermediate bulk container (IBC) conceived to contain liquid or solid products may be re-used for the same purpose, e.g. re-used containing liquid or solid products. Re-use may include preparing the packaging material for re-use, for example by checking, cleaning and/or repairing operations.
The packaged product may be a product present within a packaging material. The product may be in contact with the packaging material. The product may be stored within the packaging material. The product may be transported within the packaging material. The packaged product may represent a product that may be supplied to a product consumer. The product may be a chemical product. The chemical product may be obtained from at least one chemical reaction using one or more chemical input materials. Chemical reactions may include any chemical reaction commonly known in the state of the art in which the reactants are converted to one or more different chemical products. Chemical reactions may involve the use of catalysts, enzymes, bacteria, etc. to achieve the chemical reaction between the reactants. The chemical product may include natural chemical products. Natural chemical products may include any chemical product that is produced by nature without human interaction or intervention, i.e. any unprocessed chemical substance that is found in nature, such as chemicals from plants, micro-organisms, animals, the earth and the sea or any chemical substance that is found in nature and extracted using a process that does not change its chemical composition. Natural chemical products may include biologicals like enzymes as well naturally occurring inorganic or organic chemical products. Natural chemical products may be isolated and purified prior to their use or they can be used in unisolated and/or unpurified form. Chemical products may be synthetic chemical products. Synthetic chemical products may include chemical products produced with human interaction or intervention. Synthetic chemical products may be produced with the same chemical reactions occurring in nature or with different chemical reactions. The chemical product may include a raw material. The chemical product may include a chemical material produced by reacting at least two raw materials. The chemical product may include a formulation, e.g. a mixture of different chemical products. The chemical product may include a component. The chemical product may include a component assembly. The chemical product may include an end product.
The chemical product may be produced by a chemical production from one or more chemical input materials. The chemical input materials may include raw materials, intermediate chemical products or chemical products received from a supplier. The chemical production may be a chemical production network including multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with interrelated production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more inbound material(s) as input chemical products as output. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include a physically interconnected arrangement of production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, supply chain ships or other cargo transportation means.
The chemical product may be filled into the packaging material after production of the chemical product, for example at a filling station. Data relating to production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be collected at the production stage of the packaging material or the component thereof by the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be collected in relation to production of the packaging material or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be collected prior to, on, during or after production of the packaging material or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be collected per production stage of the packaging material. Production stage may include any production step in the material chain of the packaging material. The material chain may include one or more stages necessary to produce the packaging product from one or more production input(s).
An identifier element may be associated with or connected to the packaging material or the component thereof. The identifier element may be associated with or connected to the packaging material or the component thereof at least on production of the packaging material or component thereof. Through the identifier element the digital twin of the packaging material or the component thereof may be accessible through the decentral network. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the packaging material or the component thereof. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the digital packaging material or component identifier. The digital packaging material or component identifier may uniquely relate to the packaging material or component. This way material composition data may be provided per packaging material/component or for individual packaging material/components. The packaging material or component identifier may include one or more decentral identifier(s) uniquely related to the packaging material or component. The packaging material or component identifier may relate to one or more decentral identifier(s) signifying the digital twin of the physical entity of the packaging material or component. The decentral identifier may be a digital identifier of or for the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be a digital identifier provided to the decentral network and participant nodes of the decentral network. The decentral identifier may hence signify physical entities of packaging material or components in the decentral network and participant nodes may be able to interpret the relation of the decentral identifier to the physical entities of packaging material or components of the material chain.
An identifier element may be associated with or connected to the packaged product. The identifier element may be associated with or connected to the packaged product at least on production of the packaging material or component thereof. Through the identifier element the digital twin of the packaged product may be accessible through the decentral network. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the packaged product. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the digital packaged product identifier. The digital packaged product identifier may uniquely relate to the packaged product. This way product composition data may be provided per packaged product or for individual packaged products. The packaged product identifier may include one or more decentral identifier(s) uniquely related to the packaged product. The packaged product identifier may relate to one or more decentral identifier(s) signifying the digital twin of the physical entity of the packaged product. The decentral identifier may be a digital identifier of or for the decentral network.
The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the producer of the packaging material or component and the packaging material or component. The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the producer of the packaged product and the packaged product. The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or a Digital Identifier(s) (DID). The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the with the producer of the packaging material or component and the packaging material or the component, access to material composition data may be controlled by the producer of the packaging material or component. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the with the producer of the packaged product and the packaged product, access to product composition data may be controlled by the producer of the packaged product. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the identifier as controlled by the data owner.
The decentral identifier may include one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for data exchange via the decentral network. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral identifier for network nodes of the decentral network, authentication of network nodes of the decentral network and/or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between network nodes of the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with participants of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including chemical product producer, intermediate chemical producer, intermediate part producer, component producer, component assembly producer, packaging material producer, packaging material collector, packaging material sorter and/or packaging material recycler. The chemical product producer, packaging material user, intermediate chemical producer, intermediate part producer, component producer and/or component assembly producer may be regarded as packaging material users. The decentral identifier may be associated with material entities of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including chemical product, intermediate chemical, intermediate part, component, component assembly, and/or packaging material.
The packaging material may be associated with the access element via the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. The access element may include access data and one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the access element. The access element may further include authentication mechanism(s). The access element may further include a representation of material composition data or parts thereof. The access element may comprise or be associated with access data associated with material composition data and/or the product composition data. The access data associated with the material composition data and/or the product composition data may be provided to the decentral network. The access data associated with the material composition data and/or the product composition data may be provided by a decentral network node associated with a dedicated storage of the packaging material producer or packaged product producer, respectively. The access data may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage address associated with the packaging material producer or packaged product producer, respectively. The access data may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with a production participant of the production chain producing the packaging material or component thereof or the packaged product and storing the data related to the production of the packaging material or packaged product. The access data may include one or more digital link(s) or representation(s) pointing to data related to the production of the packaging material or component thereof such as the material composition data. The access data may include one or more digital link(s) or representation(s) pointing to data related to the production of the packaged product such as the product composition data. The digital representation(s) may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the packaging material or component thereof or the packaged product and storing the data related to the production of the packaging material or component thereof or packaged product. Access to the dedicated storage may be under control of the data owner, such as the packaging material producer or packaged product producer, of the material composition data or the product composition data. The data owner may hence control access to such dedicated storage, for example via a decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner. The pointer or locator may point directly to the dedicated storage address. The pointer or locator may point to a data providing network node associated with the dedicated storage. This may increase data security since the dedicated storage address is not published to further participants of the decentral network hence avoiding the risk of direct access of the dedicated storage without access control via the decentral data providing network node. The access element may allow for recursive access to data related to the production of the packaging material and/or data related to the production of the packaged product per production stage. The access element may be linked to other access elements associated with output product(s) of one or more production stages, in particular per production stage, hence allowing for recursive access to such data per production stage.
The decentral network may include one or more decentral network node(s) configured to perform data transactions. The decentral network node(s) may be associated with participants of the material chain, particularly the material loop. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer network between decentral network node(s) of the decentral network may be established.
The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to the decentral identifier. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be provided to decentral network node(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be accessible by decentral network node(s). The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by each data owner of the decentral network.
The one or more decentral identifier(s) may be uniquely associated with a physical entity of the produced packaging material or a component thereof or the produced packaged product. The access element may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier and the access data. The access element may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier and at least parts of a digital twin of the packaging material or component thereof. The access element may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier and at least parts of a digital twin of the packaged product. The one or more authorization mechanisms may include authorization rules determining if access to the data related to the production is granted. The one or more authorization mechanisms may be associated with the data providing network node associated with the producer of the packaging material or packaged product. The one or more authorization mechanisms may be provided per production stage or per producer in the package material production chain or packaged product production chain.
Data providing network node(s) may be configured to provide access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the respective data providing network node(s). The data providing network node may be associated with a material participant of the production chain of the packaging material or the component thereof, such as the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof. The data providing network node may be associated with a material participant of the production chain of the packaged product, such as the producer of the packaged product. The data generated by the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof per production stage may be provided by the data providing network node to the decentral network, in particular for access by data consuming network node(s). The data generated by the producer of the packaged product per production stage may be provided by the data providing network node to the decentral network, in particular for access by data consuming network node(s). The access to the data may be under control of the data providing network node. The data providing network node may be configured to authenticate the data consuming network node and/or to authorize access to the data by the data consuming network node.
Data consuming network node(s) may be configured to request access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the data providing network node(s). The data consuming network node may be associated with the material participant of the recycling chain of the packaging material or the component thereof, such as the sorter or recycler of the packaging material or the component thereof. The data generated by the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof per production stage may be accessed by the data consuming network node(s) upon authentication and/or authorization. The data consuming network node may be associated with the material participant of the re-use chain of the packaging material or the component thereof, such as a packaged product producer. The data generated by the producer of the packaged product per production stage may be accessed by the data consuming network node(s) upon authentication and/or authorization.
Data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be collected. The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be accessed by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof. The data providing network node may be associated with the data owner of the data related to the production, such as the packaging material producer or the component producer. The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include material composition data. Data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include history data relating to the use, application and/or origin of the packaging material or the component thereof. By collecting history data, such data may be accessed by participants of the recycling chain to improve sorting and/or recycling processes of waste packaging materials.
In an embodiment, the material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling is collected in association with the production of the packaging material by the producer of the packaging material or a component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected on production of the packaging material or the component thereof by the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected in relation to production of the packaging material or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected prior to, on, during or after production of the packaging material or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected per production stage of the packaging material. Production stage may include any production step in the material chain of the packaging material. The material chain may include one or more stages necessary to produce the packaging product from one or more production input(s).
In an embodiment, data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof includes input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material, in particular related decentral identifiers of the one or more production input(s). The input data may include decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component thereof. Decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component thereof may be gathered. By collecting input data, the production input(s) can be related to the production output(s) per production stage of the packaging material and tracking of material flows across material participants of the packaging material production chain can be enabled. In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of generating a relationship access element based on decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more input(s) used to produce the packaging material. Generating the relationship access element may include
• generating a relationship data set based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more input(s) used to produce the packaging material,
• generating relationship access data associated with the relationship data set,
• providing a decentral relationship identifier associated with the relationship data set,
• generating a relationship access element including the decentral relationship identifier and the relationship access data.
The relationship data set may include the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component and the decentral identifier(s) of the packaging material or the component produced from such production inputs. The relationship data set may include a relation for decentral identifier(s) signifying the production relationship. The decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component may be assigned child identifier. The decentral identifier(s) of the packaging material or the component produced from such production inputs may be assigned parent identifier. The relationship data set may be generated per production stage of the packaging material. In other words, the relationship data set may be generated per producer of the production chain for the packaging material. The relationship data set may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the producer of the packaging material or the component thereof. The relationship data set may be stored per production stage of the packaging material. In other words, the relationship data set may be stored per producer of the production chain for the packaging material.
The relationship access element may be provided for access to the relationship data set by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the packaging material. The relationship access element may be provided for access to the relationship data set by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of a data providing network node associated with the data owner of the relationship data set, such as the packaging material producer. The relationship access data may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the packaging material or component thereof and storing the relationship data set (e.g. the digital relationship). The relationship access data may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to the relationship data set. The relationship access data may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the packaging material or component thereof and storing the relationship data set(s). The relationship access element may be provided to a relationship management node of the decentral network. This way the relationship can be accessed by data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network. The relationship access element may be provided for access to a relationship data set specifying relationship(s) between production input(s) and the packaging material produced by the producer of the packaging material, wherein the producer of the packaging material provides access to the relationship access element through the data providing network node associated with said producer of the packaging material. The relationship access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to the relationship data set(s) depending on a decentral participant identifier. The decentral participant identifier may be associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the relationship data set(s). The decentral participant identifier may be associated with a participant of the decentral network being associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the relationship data set(s). The decentral participant identifier may be associated with the data consuming network node associated with a recycling system that provides the decentral identifier of the packaging material on recycling. This way access to sensitive data relating to the bill of material of the packaging material in the production chain can be restricted to specific network nodes for which the data access is relevant, such as the material composition data or history data for controlling and/or monitoring recycling processes. In addition the data access may aid to detect critical substance(s) for recycling for participants of the packaging material production chain.
In an embodiment, the material composition data includes one or more material composition data set(s) specifying substances critical for recycling the packaging material or the component thereof by a chemical and/or physical and/or thermal recycling process. The material composition data may include one or more material composition data set(s) specifying substances critical for re-use of the packaging material or the component thereof. The material composition data may include substances critical for recycling in relation to one or more recycling process(es). The material composition data may further relate to degradation level of material used to produce the packaging material or component thereof, recyclate content used to produce the packaging material or component thereof, content of production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or component thereof and/or polymer content used to produce the packaging material or component thereof.
In another embodiment, the material composition data includes one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material per recycling process, recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data. The recycling process may be signified by a recycling process identifier. The recyclate use may be signified by a recyclate type. The decentral participant identifier may be provided by the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data. The recycling process identifier and/or the recyclate type may be provided by the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data. The recycling process identifier and/or the recyclate type may be provided by the data providing network node providing access to the material composition data. The recycling process identifier and/or the recyclate type may be provided by authorization rules relating the decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data to the recycling process identifier and/or the recyclate type. The authorization rules may relate to one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling per recycling process, recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier.
In another embodiment the access element is provided for access to material composition data set(s) that include substances critical for recycling depending on the recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant identifier by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more recycler(s) executing one or more recycling process(es). The access element(s) may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) depending on the recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant identifier. The access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling depending on a decentral participant identifier, a recycling process identifier associated with decentral participant identifier and/or a recyclate type identifier associated with decentral participant identifier. The access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling to selected participants of the material chain, in particular sorter, collector and/or recycler system participants.
In an embodiment, the use trigger is provided by the producer of the packaged product (e.g. the packaged product producer). The use trigger may be generated by at least one node of the decentral network. Such node may be associated with the producer of the packaged product. The use trigger may include at least one decentral identifier associated with the packaged product. Based on the decentral identifier, the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material may be gathered via a relationship access element containing access data pointing to a relationship data set including the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaged product, the decentral identifier of the product and the decentral identifier(s) of the packaging material. The use trigger may further include data related to the production of the packaged product. The use trigger may be generated on reading a physical identifier associated with the packaged product. The physical identifier may be connected to or physically attached to the packaged product, e.g. via an identification number, an electronic tag such as an RFID tag or a code such as a QR code. The physical identifier may be connected to the decentral identifier associated with the packaged product. The physical identifier may be connected to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. The decentral identifier associated with the packaged product and the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material may be provided for generation of the use trigger.
In an embodiment, the use trigger is provided based on at least one pre-determined criterium. The predetermined criterium may include a pre-determined location and/or a pre-determined event. The predetermined event may include performing a filling operation involving the packaging material (e.g. filling the packaging material with a product).
In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of • collecting data related to the production of the packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the data related to the production of the packaging material includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof and
• aggregating the collected composition data.
Aggregating the collected composition data may include aggregating the one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of the packaging material included in the material composition data and the product composition data. The aggregation may be based on pass over rates associated with substance(s) critical for recycling and contained within the product. The aggregation may be performed prior to generating the access data. The access data may be associated with the aggregated data. This allows to generate an access element for access to the aggregated data.
In an embodiment of the method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, the packaging material data includes at least one measured chemical and/or physical property of the packaging material and/or at least one physical and/or chemical property determined from collected data associated with the production of the packaging material. The chemical property may be a property of the packaging material that becomes evident during, or after, a chemical reaction. Hence, the chemical property may be any quality that can be established only by changing the chemical identity of the packaging material. Examples of chemical properties include heat of combustion, toxicity, chemical stability in a given environment, flammability, ability to corrode, acidity and basicity, packaging material composition, recyclate content used for producing or manufacturing the packaging material, bio-based content used for producing or manufacturing the packaging material, renewable content used for producing or manufacturing the packaging material, and/or pH value. The physical property may be any property that is measurable. Hence, the value of a physical property describes a state of the packaging material or a part thereof. Examples of physical properties include absorption, brittleness, boiling point, capacitance, color, concentration, density, ductility, distribution, efficacy, elasticity, electric charge, electrical conductivity, electrical impedance, electric potential, flow rate, fluidity, hardness, heat capacity, inductance, intrinsic impedance, luminance, luminescence, luster, mass, melting point, opacity, permeability, permittivity, plasticity, pressure, radiance, resistivity, reflectivity, refractive index, solubility, specific heat, strength, stiffness, temperature, tension, thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, viscosity, volume and/or wave impedance, the measured at least one physical and/or chemical property may be obtained by sensors configured to measure the physical and/or chemical property. The sensor may be included in a measuring device. The sensor may correspond to the measuring device. For example, the physical and/or chemical property may include a property provided by sensors of a mobile device such as a camera, or measurement devices configured to measure at least one physical and/or chemical property.
In an embodiment of the method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, further including a step of updating the digital twin with the generated relationship data set. Updating the digital twin may include associating the generated relationship data set with the decentral identifier(s) included in the digital twin.
In an embodiment of the method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, further including a step of generating packaging material data containing the generated relationship data set. The packaging material data may further include packaging material data gathered from a decentral data providing node associated with the packaging material producer using the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. The packaging material data may be generated by the packaged product producer. This allows to store data associated with re-usable packaging materials within the respective packaging material data set(s) and avoids repeated accessing of such data.
In an embodiment of the method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof, further including
• determining whether at least one relationship data set is existing in response to receiving the use trigger,
• generating at least one relationship history data set by aggregating the data contained in the existing relationship data set(s) with the data contained in the received use trigger, in response that at least one relationship data set is existing.
At least one access element may be generated for the relationship history data by generated access data associated with said relationship history data and generating the access element including decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data.
The relationship history data set may include one or more decentral packaging material identifier(s), a plurality of decentral packaged product identifiers and history data being indicative of a packing order specifying the order of products contained within the packaging material. The relationship history data set may allow to determine the filling history of a re-usable packaging material. This filling history may provide valuable insights into contaminations stemming from products contained within the re-usable packaging material. This may be beneficial if the re-usable packaging material is used by different packaged product producers producing different packaged products (e.g. filling different products into the re-usable packaging material).
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and/or parts. FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a circular material loop including material participants connected through a decentral network with decentral network nodes associated with material participants.
FIG. 2 illustrates a further example embodiment of a circular material loop including material participants connected through a decentral network with decentral network nodes associated with material participants.
FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data structure of a digital twin of a packaging material.
FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a data structure for dynamic use data contained within the digital twin data structure of FIG. 3A.
FIG. 4 illustrates an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and decentral identity infrastructure.
FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component.
FIG. 7 illustrates an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof in accordance with a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8A shows a schematic illustration of a first example of providing a use trigger and gathering data related to the production of the packaged product via the provided use trigger.
FIG. 8B shows a schematic illustration of providing a use trigger and gathering data related to the production of the packaged product in response to receiving the use trigger.
FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof in accordance with a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention..
FIG. 10 illustrates an example apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for reuse of a packaging material or a component thereof.
FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof. FIG. 12 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to packaging material data associated with a packaging material using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a recycler.
FIG. 13 illustrates an example system for obtaining composition data based on a decentral packaging material identifier.
FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of relationship representations specifying relationships between a packaging material and a packaged product.
FIG. 15A illustrates a method for of obtaining data related to the production of packaging materials or the component thereof based on decentral identifier(s) and relationships.
FIG. 15B illustrates an example of a method for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used. FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a method for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following embodiments are mere examples for implementing the method, the system or application device disclosed herein and shall not be considered limiting.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a circular material loop 126 including material participants 104 to recycler 112 connected through a 130 with decentral network nodes 114 to 124 associated with material participants 102 to 112.
The participant network shown in FIG. 1 may be a material chain network. The material chain network may include one or more linear material chain(s), such as production chain(s) and/or recycling chain(s). The linear material chain(s) may include a material production chain(s), in which the packaging material is produced by a material producer 104 and used to produce a packaged product by packaged product producer 106. The linear material chain(s) may include a material recycling chain, in which the produced packaging material is collected, sorted and recycled up to a recycler 112 and the recyclate is used to produce new material by the material producer 104. The material chain may include one or more production and/or recycling chain(s). The material chain may include one or more connected production and/or recycling chain(s). One or more linear material chain(s) may be connected to the material loop 126. The material chain network may include a material loop network 126 including the use of recycled material(s) to produce new materials. One or more material loop(s) 126 may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life packaging materials to produce new products, such as chemical products or materials, associated with one or more material chain(s). The material chain network, preferably the material loop 126, may include the production, use and/or recycling of physical materials or products containing such materials. The product may be a material, a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a discrete component containing material, a discrete component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product, a product to be recycled, a recycled product or a recyclate.
Material or chemical product may refer to a chemical compound, a chemical ingredient, a chemical molecule, a chemical composition, a chemical mixture, a chemical formulation, an intermediate chemical product, or a chemical base material that may be used to produce discrete products. Chemical material or product flows may include non-discrete material flows that may be further processed to produce discrete products or components. Chemical material or product flows may include liquids, pellets, beats, powders or the like. The discrete product may refer to a discrete component, a discrete component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product, a product to be recycled, or a recycled discrete product.
The chemical material or product may be produced using raw materials and/or recyclate. The recyclate may refer to a mechanically or chemically recycled material. Recyclate or recycled material flows may include non-discrete material flows that may be further processed to produce new materials or chemical products. Recyclate or recycled material flows may include liquids, pellets, beats, powders or the like. The raw materials may refer to starting materials used to produce the material or chemical product, such as virgin raw material(s). Virgin raw material may be unused raw material that has not been subjected to any processing other than for its production.
End product may refer to a product that is the result of a material chain. End product may refer to a product that is used by the end product user. End-of-life (EOL) product may refer to a product that has been used by end product user. End-of-life product may refer to a product that does no longer fulfill the requirements for its use. End-of-life product may refer to a product that is no longer required. End-of-life products may be products disposed in waste, such as plastic waste. A recycled product may refer to any product or material that has been produced using end-of-life product(s). A recycled product may refer to a new product or material that has been produced using end-of-life product(s).
The material loop 126 illustrated in FIG. 1 may include multiple participants 104 to 112 forming the material loop 126. The material loop 126 may include all stages of the material from production of the material via use of the material to re-use of the material. The material may hence flow in a closed loop from production of constituents, the end product via use to re-use. Re-use may include re-purposing of the end-of-life product, re-furbishing of the end-of-life product and/or recycling of the end-of-life product to refeed recyclate into material production.
The participant(s) 104 to 112 of the material loop may be associated with the production of any material or product and/or recycling of any material or product. The participant(s) of the material loop 126 may include the input material producer(s) 102, the packaging material producer 104, the packaged product producer 106, the EOL packaging collector/sorter 110, the recycler 112 or combinations thereof. The participant(s) may include various participant(s) of the material chain or loop not shown in FIG. 1 .
The participant(s) 104 to 112 of the material loop 126 may be connected through material flow(s) 134. The material flow 134 may correspond to the flow of product or material from one participant 104 to 112 of the material loop to the downstream participant 104 to 112 of the material loop 126. The material flow 134 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of product or material. The flow of product or material may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the product from one participant 104 to 112 to another downstream participant 104 to 112. The means of transportation may include the use of packaging materials. The material flow 134 may be a one-sided flow, such as a directional material flow 134. The material flow 134may flow from the up-stream participant 104 to 112 to the downstream participant 104 to 112 of the material loop 126, such as the material flow 134 from the recycler 112 to the packaging material producer 104. The material flow may include reverse material flow 134 from the downstream participant 104 to 112 to the upstream participant 104 to 112 of the material loop 126. For example, material may material flow 134 from the packaging material producer 104 to the recycler 112, e.g. when the recycled product or recyclate does not adhere to quality specifications and needs further treatment.
The material flow 134 may be associated with raw materials used to produce the material or chemical product, such as virgin raw material(s). Instead of or in addition to virgin raw material(s) the material flow 134 may include recycled material(s). The raw and recycled materials may be provided to the chemical product producer for producing material(s), chemical product(s) and/or intermediate chemical product(s) (not shown).
The material loop 126 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be based on the example of recyclable packaging material and their circular loop. Packaging materials may include plastic packaging materials. Plastic materials may include a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl carbon, polyamide, polyurethane or the like. The material participants may include the input material producer(s) 102, the packaging material producer 104, the packaged product producer 106, the product user 108, such as the consumer, the waste collector and/or sorter 110, the recycler 112 such as the recycler.
The packaging material may be produced by packaging material producer 104. The packaging material may be produced from raw material flow 134 and/or from loop material flow 132. The produced packaging material may be provided to a packaged product producer 106. The packaged product producer 106 may produce a product, such as a chemical product, using one or more production input(s). The production input(s) may be raw materials and/or recycled materials. The production input(s) may be provided from input material producer(s) 102 and/or recycler 112. The packaged product producer 106 may use the received packaging material to package the produced product. The packaged product may be provided to a product user 108. The user may remove the packaging material prior to or upon use of the product. The user may dispose the packaging material into the waste. The waste packaging material may be provided to the waste collector and/or sorter 110. The collected waste packaging material may be sorted by EOL packaging collector/sorter 110. The collected waste packaging material may be provided to a sorter for sorting fractions of waste packaging material to be recycled. The sorted fractions may be provided to a recycler for recycling the waste packaging material fractions. The loop material flow 132 may close the loop between the material participants.
In addition to the connection through material flow 134 the material participants 104 to 112 of the circular material loop 126 may be connected through data flow 128 via the decentral network 130. The decentral network 130 may include one or more decentral network nodes 116 to 122 associated with material participants 104 to 112 of the material loop 126. In a decentralized or decentral network 130, the decentral network nodes 114 to 124, in contrast to a centralized network, do not exclusively rely on a central network node. In other words, no single entity is the sole authority of the network. The decentral network 130 may include decentral and central network nodes. The decentral network 130 may include central network nodes that may control and/or monitor the decentral network nodes 114 to 124. For example, central network node(s) may provide authentication information, which allow at least two decentral network nodes 114 to 124 to establish a peer-to-peer communication channel between respective decentral network nodes 114 to 124.
The network nodes 114 to 124 may be computing nodes. The computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. Computing nodes are now increasingly taking a wide variety of forms. Computing nodes may, for example, be handheld devices, monitoring systems, control systems, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes and/or data centers. The memory may take any form and depends on the nature and form of the computing node. The decentral network nodes 114 to 124 may be connected via a wired and/or wireless connection such as one of Ethernet, USB, LAN, WLAN and the like. Wireless communication may use, for example, WLAN, Wi-Fi, cellular, and/or Blue-tooth. The decentral network nodes 116 to 122 may be configured to perform peer-to-peer data transactions, illustrated by the arrows 128 indicating data flow.
The decentral network nodes 114 to 124 may be configured as data consuming and/or providing network nodes. The decentral network nodes 114 to 124 may be configured to provide data to other network node(s) of the decentral network 130 and/or to consume data from other nodes of the decentral network 130. For instance, the decentral network node 124 associated with the packaging material producer 104 may be configured to provide material composition data to downstream participants such as the packaged product producer 106, or the recycler 112. Further for instance, the decentral network node 114 to 124 associated with the EOL packaging collector/sorter 110 or the recycler 112 may be configured to access data from the network node 114 to 124 associated with upstream participants such as the packaging material producer 104.
The decentral network node(s) 114 to 124 may comprise computer-executable instructions configured to provide, consume and/or process data, such as data associated with the packaging material or the packaging material produced or processed within the circular material loop 126. The network node(s) may run a data providing service configured to provide data to another decentral network node 116 to 122 of the decentral network 130. The decentral network node(s) 114 to 124 configured to provide data may be associated with a data owner or a data generating node associated with a material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 126. The decentral network node(s) 114 to 124 may be connected to one or more dedicated data storage(s) storing the data associated with material or product produced or processed in the circular loop 126 (see for example FIG. 12). The dedicated data storage(s) may be under control of the data owner or data generating node associated with the material or product produced or processed in the circular loop 126. The data owner may be the respective participant 104 to 112 of the circular loop 126, the data generating node 114 to 124 is associated with. The data generating node 114 to 124 may have access to the dedicated data storage(s). Access to data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 126 may hence be under control of the data owner the respective decentral network node 114 to 124 is associated with. This allows to retain full control over data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 126 by the data owner. At the same time this enables sharing of data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 126 under controlled conditions, for example by using appropriate protocols including authorization and authentication mechanisms or schemes to establish peer-to-peer communication.
The decentral network node 114 to 124 configured to consume data may comprise computer-executable instructions for accessing and/or processing data within the decentral net-work decentral network 130, such as data associated with material produced or processed within the circular loop 126 and provided by a decentral data providing network node 114 to 124. The decentral data consuming network node 114 to 124 may be controlled or owned by or associated with any upstream or downstream participant of the circular material loop 126. For instance, the decentral data consuming network node 124 may be associated with packaging material producer 104 to allow access to material composition data associated with the supplied packaging material of the packaging material producer through the decentral data providing network node input material producer(s) 102 associated with the input material producer(s) 102. The decentral network 130 may include further decentral network nodes. The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with further participants of the circular loop 126. The further nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes (not shown in FIG. 1). The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 114 to 124, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 114 to 124 prior to performing a data ex-change. The decentral network participant node(s) 114 to 124 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with an identity man-ager including e.g. a certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network node(s) 114 to 124 may be associated or connected to a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network node(s) 114 to 124. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with the data consumer are used to verify the identity prior to per-forming a data exchange (not shown).
The material or product produced by participant(s) 104 to 112 of the circular loop 126 may be associated with material or product data associated with properties of the material or product produced by participant(s) 104 to 112 of the circular loop 126 . The material or product data may be provided for access by the decentral data providing network node114 to 124 associated with the material or product producer. Access to the material or product data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node 114 to 124. The material or product data may be accessed by decentral data consuming network node(s) 114 to 124 associated with further participants 104 to 112 of the material loop 126 , such as any downstream participant 104 to 112.
The data flows 128 between decentral network nodes114 to 124 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flows 134 between the participants 104 to 112 of the material loop 126. For instance, the data flow 128 may be directly associated with the material flow 134 if data associated with a packaging material provided from the packaging material producer 104 to the packaged product producer 106 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 116 associated with said packaged product producer 106. For instance, the data flow 128 may be indirectly associated with the material flows 134, if data associated with a packaging material produced by packaging material producer 104 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 122 associated with recycler 112.
Data transactions between decentral network nodes 114 to 124 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with the material or product data to be accessed. The decentral identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the material or product. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the material or product. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the material or product within the decentral network 130. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of material(s) or product(s) used to produce the end product. This may allow to track the material(s) or product(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be included in an access element associated with the material or product as is described in more detail in the context of FIG. 5.
In particular, the generation of access elements associated with data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof and/or associated with data related to the production of the packaged product at each stage of the production chain allow for monitoring material flows through the decentral network. Such monitoring by providing access to data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof and/or associated with data related to the production of the packaged product will be described in more detail by way of examples in the following FIG. 3A to FIG. 16.
FIG. 2 illustrates a further example embodiment of a circular material loop including material participants connected through a decentral network with decentral network nodes associated with material participants. In contrast to the example of FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 illustrates the re-use of packaging materials. The packaging materials may include re-usable containers, such as IBCs.
The container producer 202 may produce a new container 220 from one or more production input(s) received from input material producer 1 212. The new container 220 may be provided to packaged product producer 106. Packaged product producer 106 produces one or more products from production inputs provided by input material producer 2 216 as described in the context of FIG. 1. Packaged product producer 106 produces a packaged product using the new container 220 supplied by container producer 202. Packaged product producer 106 may provide the packaged product 224 to packaged product user 204. Packaged product user 204 may use the product, such as a chemical product, contained within the container. Upon emptying the container, packaged product user 204 may provide the empty used container 222 to packaged product producer 106. Upon emptying the container, packaged product user 204 may provide the empty used container 222 to container producer 202. Packaged product producer 106 may perform one or more cleaning operations to clean the used container 222 prior to refilling the used container with a produced product. Likewise, container producer 202 may perform one or more cleaning operations to clean the used container 222 prior to providing the used container 222 to packaged product producer 106.
The material flows 132 may be associated with data flows 128 as described in the context of FIG. 1. For instance, the container producer 202 may generate a digital twin of the container using data related to the production of the container. The digital twin may include one or more relationship data set(s) specifying the relation between the container and production input(s) used to produce the container. The container producer 202 may generate access element(s) for providing access to the digital twin or a part thereof. The access element may include a decentral identifier associated with the container and access data. The access data may point to the digital twin stored in a dedicated storage associated with the container producer 202. The digital twin may include the material composition data. Packaged product producer 106 may access via the access element(s) generated by container producer 202 the digital twin or a part thereof. Upon production of the packaged product, packaged product producer 106 may generate a use-trigger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The use trigger may trigger generation of a relationship data set specifying the relation between the container and the product contained within the container. This allows to determine product composition data using said relationship data set.
FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data structure of a digital twin of a packaging material. The packaging material may be a re-usable container. The packaging material may be recyclable packaging material, such as a plastic packaging material. The exemplary data structure may comprise a tree structure comprising a root node and one or more leaf nodes (e.g. nodes not having child nodes). The root node may resemble the digital twin of the packaging material. The root node may include a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. The decentral identifier may include one or more UUID(s) and/or DID(s) as previously described. The root node may comprise one or more child nodes (not shown).
The child nodes may represent different data sets, such as data sets 304 to 342. The data sets may likewise comprise a tree structure (not shown). The data set(s) may include static properties, such as recycled content data, re-use data, tracking data, waste prevention data, manufacturer data transport data, relationship data and property data. The manufacturer data may include the decentral participant identifier associated with the packaging material manufacturer. The property data set 334 may include material composition data related to critical substances 352. The relationship data set may include one or more relationships between decentral identifiers, such as the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material and decentral identifier(s) of production input(s) used to produce the packaging material. The relationships may be denoted using child and parent (e.g. The decentral identifier associated with the packaging material assigned parent and the decentral identifier(s) of production input(s) used to produce the packaging material assigned child). The data set(s) may include dynamic properties, such as illustrated in FIG. 3B. Each data set may include or be associated with a data set identifier. The data set identifier may include one or more UUID(s) and/or DID(s). The data set identifier may uniquely identify the data set within the digital twin data structure. Each data set may be associated with the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. Hence, the combination of the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material and the respective data set identifier allows to uniquely identify a data set of a digital twin.
The digital twin data structure may be generated by collecting data associated with the production of the packaging material, such as production data, recycled content data, re-use data, tracking data, waste prevention data, manufacturer data transport data, property data, data associated with production input(s) used to produce the packaging material, or a combination thereof. The decentral identifier associated with the packaging material may be provided from a central or decentral node. At least one data model defining the structure of one or more data set(s), such as data sets 304 to 342, may be provided. The data model(s) may contain a semantic description of the respective data set. This ensures generation of data set(s) having a harmonized data structure and allows efficient sharing and processing of the data. The data model(s) may be applied to the collected data to generate the one or more data set(s). A data set identifier may be provided for each data set. The digital twin data structure may be generated by associating the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material with the one or more data sets.
The digital twin data structure may be generated upon receiving a request to generate such data structure. The request may be received from a requestor. For instance, the packaging line may comprise a labelling device detecting the packaging of the produced packaging material(s). Based on such recognition, a requestor may generate a request to generate the digital twin data structure and the respective decentral identifier associated with the packaging material included in the generated digital twin data structure may be assigned, for example by an ID assignor, to the respective physical identifier. Assigning may include encoding the respective decentral identifier associated with the packaging material in a physical identifier and providing the physical identifier, such as a code, to the labelling device configured to attach the physical identifier to the respective packaging material. The ID assignor may be part of the labelling device or may be a separate device.
The digital twin data structure may be generated by the data owner of the collected production data associated with the production of the packaging material. The digital twin data structure may be generated by the packaging material producer 104. The digital twin data structure may be generated on behalf of the data owner, such as the packaging material producer 104.
The digital twin data structure may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with or of the data owner, such as the packaging material producer. The dedicated storage may be accessible for the data owner. The dedicated storage may be associated with the data providing network node providing access to the digital twin data structure, for example via an access element as described in the context of FIG. 12.
FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a data structure for dynamic use data contained within the digital twin data structure of FIG. 3A. The dynamic use data structure may contain a tree structure including a root node and one or more leaf nodes. The root node may include the dynamic use data set identifier. The dynamic use data may contain product history data, for example as described in the context of Fig. 10. This may allow to determine a history of products contained within the re-usable packaging material and may allow to tailor cleaning processes using such data.
The dynamic use data may be determined from data collected via the decentral network.
The maintenance data may include data associated with the maintenance of the packaging material. The maintenance data may include maintenance history data. FIG. 4 illustrates an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus may implement the method described in the context of FIG. 5. The packaging material may be a recyclable packaging material. The packaging material may be a plastic packaging material. The packaging material may be a paper packaging material.
A packaging material production 414 may produce one or more packaging materials 416 from one or more production input(s) 412. The one or more production input(s) 412 may be received from input material producer(s) 102 (see FIG. 1 and FIG. 2).
With reference to FIG. 5, data related to the production, of the packaging material 414 may be collected. The data may be collected from packaging material production 414. The data may be collected via a decentral network 130 using data consuming network node 124A associated with packaging material producer 104 from input material producer(s) 102. The data may be collected by production data collector 402 of access element generator 410. The data may be collected prior to, during and/or after production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The component in this case may include any discrete or non-discrete component produced by any material participant of the production chain of the packaging material. The packaging material may refer to the end product of the production chain. The component may refer to any stage in the production chain.
The data may be generated in association with one or more network nodes, e.g. in relation to data generating node(s), associated with the respective producer. The data may relate to different stages of the production chain of the packaging material. The data may relate to the production of production input(s) 412 used to produce the packaging material. The data may be specific to any production input 412 used to produce the packaging material or the produced packaging material 416. The data may be specific to individual entities or batches of the production input(s) 412 or the produced packaging material 416.
The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include material composition data and/or history data. The material composition data may relate to the material composition of the packaging material or the component thereof. The material composition data may specify the material composition of the packaging material or components thereof. For example, the material composition data may specify type, weight, material or a combination thereof. For example, the material composition data may specify the plastic compound, combination of plastic compounds, composite material, combination of composite materials, foamed material, combination of foamed material, additives, combination of additives or combinations thereof. The material composition data may further include critical constituents or substances in relation to one or more recycling process(es). Critical constituents or substances may be constituents or substances that impact the quality of recyclate producible by the recycling process. Contaminants may include sulfur, halogens, oxygen, phosphorus, metals and inorganics such as aluminum, antinomy, barium, calcium chromium, copper, iron, potassium, sodium, lead, silicon, titanium, zinc, arsine, mercury, nickel, vanadium, or combinations thereof.
The material composition data may further relate to recyclate content used to produce the packaging material or component thereof and/or production input content used to produce the packaging material or component thereof. Such data may be accessed by sorters, collectors and/or recyclers on sorting, collecting and/or recycling to determine the recyclate content and/or production input content. This way the waste fractions on sorting or the waste fractions after sorting may be more finely monitored.
The history data may relate to the origin, use, and/or application the plastic article or any component thereof is produced for. The article history data may specify the origin, use, and/or application of the packaging material article or any component thereof. For example, the origin may relate to a location, a region and/or a producer of the packaging material article or any component thereof. The origin may refer to the location, the region and/or the producer of the production input(s) 412. For example, the use may relate to a use of the packaging material or any component thereof. Such data may be accessed by sorters, collectors and/or recyclers on sorting, collecting and/or recycling to monitor the waste fractions on sorting or after sorting more finely.
The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component thereof. The data may relate to one or more production input(s) used to produce the respective entity in the packaging material production chain. Collecting data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include gathering decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material or the component thereof. The decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected by reading an identifier element, such as a bar code or QR code, connected to the production inputs production input(s) 412.
The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include property data. The property data may relate to or include a property of the related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof or the component thereof. The property of the plastic article or the component thereof may include a performance property, a chemical property, such as flammability, toxicity, acidity, reactivity, heat of combustion or the like, and/or a physical property such as density, color, hardness, melting points, boiling points, electrical conductivity or the like.
By collecting the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof per production stage of the product chain, digital twins of the respective entities produced by one or more production participant(s) of the production chain may be generated. This way the entities from raw material or recyclate to packaging material may be tracked in the material production chain. The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the respective production participant of the production chain producing the packaging material or component thereof. The production participant may control access to such data, for example via an associated decentral data providing network node. The data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may include different data sets related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. Such data sets may refer to the data sets described above such as material composition data, history data, property data, emission data, recyclate content data, bio-based content data and/or production data.
With continued reference to FIG. 6, one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced packaging material 416 or a component thereof may be provided by ID provider 404. The one or more decentral identifier(s) may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the produced packaging material 416 or a component thereof. The one or more decentral identifier(s) may be uniquely associated with any entity produced by any participant of the production chain. The one or more decentral identifier(s) may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the produced packaging material 416 or component thereof, the production participant(s) of the production chain producing the entity and/or the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The decentral identifier may include or relate to one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or a Digital Identifier(s) (DID). Via the decentral identifier(s) and the unique association with the packaging material or component thereof, the producer and/or the data access to the data may be controlled by the producer. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the identifier in implementation as controlled by the data owner.
With continued reference to FIG. 6, access data associated with the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof may be generated by access data generator 406. The access data may be generated per data set included in the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access data may point to the collected data or parts thereof. The access data may relate to the dedicated storage associated with the packaging material production 414 and storing the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access data may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with the packaging material production 414 and storing the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access data may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to data related to the production of the packaging material or component thereof. The access data may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the packaging material production 414 and storing the data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access data may comprise at least one interface to a data providing network node. The access data may include at least one interface to a data consuming network node. The access data may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service endpoint), that may be uniquely identified via the data transaction protocol. The access data pointing to the collected data or parts thereof may be uniquely associated with the decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may be connected to the access data of the collected data or parts thereof.
With continued reference to FIG. 6, an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the access data may be generated by access element generator 408. The access element may include or be associated with the access data of the collected data or parts thereof related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access element may be associated with the packaging material or the component thereof. The access data associated with the collected data or parts thereof may be provided to the data consuming network node. The access element may be provided by a decentral network database, a database associated with the data consuming network node and/or the data providing network node 124B associated with the producer of the produced packaging material 416. The access data may include the locator or pointer for accessing the collected data or parts thereof. The access element may be associated with the collected data or parts thereof related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof. The access element may include or be associated with the access data, the decentral identifier and authentication information. An exemplary access element generated by access element generator 408 is illustrated in FIG. 5.
The access element may include one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s) and the access data. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s), such as decentral producer identifier(s), decentral packaging material identifier(s), decentral component identifier(s), decentral input material identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s) may be accessible by the decentral participant network node(s). The digital access element may further relate to authorization information linked to the decentral identifier(s). The authorization information may be associated with the decentral identifier(s) and the access data. The authorization information may include access rules depending on the data set to be accessed and the role of the accessing data consuming network node.
With continued reference to FIG. 6, the access element may be provided for access to the data related to the production of the packaging material by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the packaging material 416 or the component thereof. The access element may be provided by access element generator 408 to a data providing network node 124B. The data providing network node 124B may provide the access element to a decentral registry node, for example as described further below. Decentral registry node may store decentral access element(s).
FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and decentral identity infrastructure. The decentral identifier may include a Decentralized Identifier (DID). The decentral identifier-based digital access element may in this case be a DID document 504 associated with the DID. Besides the DID document 504 serving as digital access element, FIG. 5 shows a DID owner data element 502 including decentral identifier-based owner data. Generally, the decentral identifier-based owner data may include the decentral identifier associated with a subject such as chemical product data set(s) and may include one or more authentication mechanism(s). The decentral identifier-based owner data 502 may include owner data that is electronically owned and controlled by the DID owner. In this context electronically owned may refer to data that is stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data may be securely stored and/or managed on an organizational server or client device. The decentral identifierbased owner data 502 may include a DID, a private key and a public key. The DID owner may own and control the DID that represents an identity associated with the DID subject, a private key and public key pair that are associated with the DID. DID may be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to the identifier.
The DID subject may be a raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, a packaging material or a packaged product. The DID subject may be a machine, a system, or a device used for producing the raw material, the basic substance, the chemical product, a packaging material or a packaged product, or a collection of such machine(s), device(s) and/or system(s). The DID owner may be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer such as a chemical manufacturer producing chemicals. The DID owner may be an upstream participant of packaging material producer 104 such as a supplier that supplies production input(s) 412. The DID owner may be a downstream participant of the packaging material producer 104 such as packaged product producer 106. The DID owner may be any participant of the material ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, packaging material manufacturer, packaged product manufacturer, end product user, maintenance operation performer, EOL collector or recycler.
The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and/or the DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The identifier may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for the raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, a packaging material or a packaged product, the recycled material or a collection thereof; the machine, the system, or the device used for producing the raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, a packaging material or a packaged product, the recycled material, or the collection of such machine(s), device(s) and/or system(s); the chemical manufacturer producing chemicals, the upstream participant of the chemical manufacturer, the downstream participant of the chemical manufacturer or a collection thereof; any participant of the material ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, packaging material manufacturer, packaged product manufacturer, end product manufacturer, end product user, EOL collector, recycler or a collection thereof.
The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and the DID owner. Preferably, the DID is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The DID may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The DID may be a locally or globally unique identifier for any of the above mentioned possible DID subjects. The DID may also be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Moreover, the DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a random string of numbers and letters for increased security. In one embodiment, the DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers e.g. according to the scheme did:method name: method specific-did such as did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1 c276e12ec21 . The DID may be decentralized ID independent of a centralized, third party management system and under the control of the DID owner.
The digital access element as DID document data DID document data 504 may be associated with the DID, i.e. the DID included in the decentral identifier-based owner data 502. Accordingly, the digital access element may include a reference to the DID, which is associated with the DID subject that is described by the DID document 504. The DID document 504 may also include an authentication information such as the public key. The public key may be used by third-party entities that are given permission by the DID owner/subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner/subject. The public key may also be used for verifying that the DID owner, in fact, owns or controls the DID. The DID document may include authentication information, authorization information e.g. to authorize third party entities to read the DID document or some part of the DID document e.g. without giving the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.
The digital access element 504 may include access data that digitally links to digital twin data included in the digital twin the digital access element is associated with, e.g. by way of service endpoints. A service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoints may refer to services, such as data providing services, of the DID owner that give access to digital twin data. Such services may include services to read or analyze data contained in the digital twin data.
The digital access element 504 may include further identifiers, such as digital twin data identifier(s) and a packaging material identifier or product identifier.
The digital access element 504 may include various other information such metadata specifying when the digital access element was created, when it was last modified and/or when it expires. The DID and digital access element 504 may be associated with a data registry node such as a centralized data service system or a decentralized data service system 506, e.g. a distributed ledger or blockchain or a decentralized file system. The distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the digital access element 504 . A representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain 506. For example, DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of the distributed ledger and point to the location of the digital access element 504. In some embodiments, the digital access element 504 may be stored on the distributed ledger 506. Each of the computing nodes may store a copy of the distributed ledger 506. In this way, each DID hash can be stored redundantly, thereby allowing for an increased data safety. DIDs associated with a plurality of different digital access element 504 may be included in the distributed ledger 506.
In some embodiments, the digital access element 504 may be stored on the distributed ledger 506, i.e. either additionally or alternatively to the associated DID representation being stored on the distributed ledger 506. In other embodiments, the digital access element 1604 may be stored in a data storage (not illustrated) that is associated with the distributed ledger or blockchain or decentralized file system.
The distributed ledger or blockchain 506 may be any decentralized, distributed network that includes various computing nodes that are in communication with each other. For example, the distributed ledger 506 may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes (not shown). The distributed ledger or blockchain 506 may include known technology stacks like Bitcoin (see e.g. Bitcoin documentation of November 11 , 2022 published https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_documentation), Ethereum (see e.g. Ethereum documentation of August 15, 2022 published on https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/), Solana (see e.g. Solana documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https://spl.solana.com/), Polygon (see e.g. Polygon documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https://wiki.polygon.technology/) or other implementations with varying degree of data transactions performed on the distributed ledger. The description of the example framework is only for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting.
FIG. 7 illustrates an apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof in accordance with a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus may implement the method described in the context of FIG. 5. The packaging material may be a recyclable packaging material. The packaging material may be a plastic packaging material. The packaging material may be a paper packaging material.
With reference to FIG. 9, a use trigger may be generated by use trigger provider 702. The use trigger may be generated by a node associated with the participants of the material ecosystem. The participant may be a packaged product producer 106. For generation of the use trigger, the identification of the packaged product may be read through ID reader 704 or may be manually entered into an application such as a mobile app. Based on providing the identification the decentral identifier associated with the packaged product may be retrieved using ID provider 706. For example, the identification may be provided to a data base storing the decentral identifiers in connection with the identification. The participant triggering the use event may connect via authentication and/or authorization protocols of the decentral network to nodes associated with other participants of the material ecosystem as for example described in the context of FIG. 1 .
According to a first exemplary embodiment and with reference to FIG. 8A and continued reference to FIG. 9, the use trigger may include at least one decentral packaged product identifier associated with the packaged product and data related to the production of the product. The data related to the production of the product may include one or more decentral identifiers associated with the packaging material used to produce the product.
The use trigger may be provided to any node associated with a participant of the material ecosystem. For example, the use trigger may be provided to the node associated with the packaging material producer 104. The use trigger may be sent to the node associated with the respective participant as illustrated in FIG. 8A.
Packaging material producer 104 may generate a data set including an endpoint address associated with data consuming network node 124 and data being indicative that this is the endpoint to receive associated with used packaging materials. The data set (hereinafter denoted as asset) may be provided to decentral registry node 812. Decentral registry node 812 may be configured to store assets and to provide access to the stored assets upon request from decentral data consuming network node(s) and/or decentral data providing network node(s) associated with participants of a decentral network, such as decentral network 130 described in the context of FIG. 1 .
Packaged product producer 106 may generate data related to the production of the packaged product as described above. The data related to the production of the packaged product may include product composition data. Product composition data may include critical substances for the recycling of the packaging material. The generated data may be stored in status data storage 810 associated with a decentral data providing network node 116 of packaged product producer 106. Upon generating the use trigger decentral data providing network node 116 may be configured to retrieve the asset registered by packaging material producer 104 from decentral registry node 812. The asset may be retrieved by identifying the asset catalog (e.g. the list of available assets) associated with the packaging material producer 104 based on the decentral participant identifier of packaging material producer 104. The asset may be identified in the catalog by searching for an asset containing a property being indicative of endpoint data to receive status data associated with used machine fluid.
Upon identifying the respective endpoint, decentral data providing network node 116 may establish a connection to decentral data consuming network node 124 using the data contained in the retrieved asset. Decentral data providing network node 116 and decentral data consuming network node 124 may perform authentication steps, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12. Upon successful authentication, electronic contract negotiations may be performed as described in the context of FIG. 12. Upon successful electronic contract negotiations, decentral data providing network node 116 may provide the generated use trigger to decentral data consuming network node 124 and decentral data consuming network node 124 may store the status data contained in the received use trigger in database 806.
According to a second exemplary embodiment and with reference to FIG. 8B and continued reference to FIG. 9, the use trigger provided by use trigger provider 702 may include at least one decentral packaged product identifier associated with the packaged product. With continued reference to FIG. 8B, the use trigger may be provided to any node associated with a participant of the material ecosystem. For example, the use trigger may be provided to the node associated with the packaging material producer 104. The use trigger may be sent to the node associated with the respective participant as illustrated in FIG. 8B.
In response to receiving the use trigger, node 124 may be configured to gather (e.g. collect) one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with packaging materials used to produce the packaged product and one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the product. The one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with packaging material(s) used to produce the product and the product may be gathered from the decentral network using the decentral identifier associated with the packaged product. The one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the product may be gathered using relationship data set(s), for example as described in the context of Fig. 13 to Fig. 15. The gathered decentral identifier(s) associated with the product may be used to collect data related to the production of the packaged product from node 116 associated with packaged product producer 106 via the decentral identifier contained in the received use trigger. The data may be collected from node 116 as described in the context of FIG. 12. The data may be collected by production data collector 710.
Returning to FIG. 7 and with continued reference to FIG. 9, data related to the production of the packaging material may be gathered. This may be preferred if aggregated data is to be generated by 708. The aggregated data may be generated by aggregating material composition data included in the data related to the production of the packaging material and product composition data included in the data related to the production of the packaged product. The data related to the production of the packaging material may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 4. Aggregating the collected composition data may include aggregating the one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of the packaging material included in the material composition data and the product composition data. The aggregation may be based on pass over rates associated with substance(s) critical for recycling and contained within the product. The aggregation may be performed prior to generating the access data. The access data may be associated with the aggregated data. This allows to generate an access element for access to the aggregated data. With continued reference to FIG. 9, access data may be generated by 712. The access data may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 4. The access data may be associated with the product composition data. The access data may be associated with the aggregated data. The access data may be associated with the product composition data and the material composition data.
With continued reference to FIG. 9, one or more access elements may be generated by access element generator 714. The access elements may include the decentral packaged material identifier(s) and the access data. The access element(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 4. The access element(s) may be provided to data providing network node 124B as described in the context of FIG. 4.
FIG. 10 illustrates an example apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for re-use of a packaging material or a component thereof. The packaging material may be a re-usable packaging material. The packaging material may include a re-usable container, vessel, tank, rail wagon or a silo. The packaging material may be reused as described in the context of FIG. 2. The packaging material may be used to package a product, such as a chemical product. Prior to re-use, the used packaging material may be cleaned and/or maintenance operation(s) may be performed on the packaging material. This allows to ensure that the quality of the product filled into the used packaging material is not negatively influenced by residues of previous product(s) having been present within the packaging material.
With reference to FIG. 11 a use trigger may be generated by use trigger provider 702 as described in the context of FIG. 7. The use trigger may include decentral identifier(s) associated with the product and decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material. The at least one decentral identifier associated with the product may be associated with product composition data relating to substances critical for re-use of the packaging material or component thereof. This may allow to gather - based on the decentral product identifier - data relating to substances critical for re-use of the packaging material, hence allowing to tailor cleaning and/or maintenance processes such that said critical substances are removed prior to re-using the packaging material to avoid contamination of the product contained within the re-used packaging material. The use trigger may include decentral identifier(s) associated with the package product. The use trigger may be generated by a node associated with the participants of the material ecosystem. The participant may be a packaged product producer 106. For generation of the use trigger, the identification of the packaged product may be read through ID reader 704 or may be manually entered into an application such as a mobile app. Based on providing the identification, the decentral identifier associated with the product contained within the packaging and the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material may be retrieved using ID provider 706. For example, the identification may be provided to a data base storing the decentral identifiers in connection with the identification. The participant triggering the use event may connect via authentication and/or authorization protocols of the decentral network to nodes associated with other participants of the material ecosystem as for example described in the context of FIG. 1 . In response to receiving the use trigger and with reference to FIG. 10, the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaged product may be used relationship generator 1002 to gather decentral identifier(s) associated with the product and decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material via the decentral network 130. The decentral identifier(s) may be gathered using relationship data set(s) specifying the relationship between the packaged product and the product and packaging material used to produce the packaged product. The decentral identifier(s) may be gathered, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 13 to FIG. 15.
In response to receiving the use trigger and with continued reference to FIG. 10, relationship data set(s) including the decentral product identifier(s) and the decentral packaging material identifier(s) may be generated by relationship generator 1002. The relationship data may include the decentral packaged product identifier(s), the decentral packaging material identifier(s) and the decentral product identifier(s). The relationship data set may include a relationship specifying the relationship between said decentral identifiers. For instance, the decentral packaged product identifier may be assigned parent identifier and the decentral product identifier(s) and decentral packaging material identifier(s) may be assigned child identifiers, respectively. The relationship data set may include a relationship specifying that the product is contained within the packaging material.
With continued reference to FIG. 10, relationship generator 1002 may be configured to determine whether relationship data set(s) including the decentral packaging material identifier(s) are already existing, e.g. have previously been generated upon use of the packaging material to package a product. Such relationship data set(s) may be stored within packaging material data. The packaging material data may correspond to the digital twin of the packaging material. Such relationship data set(s) may be stored on a dedicated storage associated with packaging material producer 104 and storing the digital twin. In case such relationship data set(s) are already existing, relationship generator 1002 may be configured to provide an indication to history relationship generator 1004 and 1004 may be configured to generate relationship history data set(s) using the decentral packaging material identifier(s) and decentral product identifier(s). Such relationship history data may specify the relationship between the packaged material, the product contained in such packaged material and the packaging material as previously described. Such relationship history data set(s) may further define history data associated with the filling of the packaging material. For instance, such history data may specify the order of products contained within the packaging material, time data indicating the order. The time data may include a time stamp. The time stamp may be indicative of creating the relationship history data set and/or of updating said data set. Such relationship history data set(s) may allow to track the history of the re-used packaging material with respect to products contained therein. Such history may be used to gather data related to the production of associated packaged products and hence associated product composition data including data related to substances critical for re-use. This allows to tailor cleaning and/or maintenance processes prior to reuse of used packaging material to the presence of such critical substances or to the product having been contained therein, ensuring efficient cleaning and/or maintenance. This may allow to increase the time span a packaging material can be re-used and avoids contamination of the product contained within the re-used packaging material. In this embodiment, relationship generator 1002 and 1004 are shown as separate components. However, relationship generator 1002 and 1004 may also be contained within a single component configured to generate relationship data set(s) and history relationship data set(s).
With continued reference to FIG. 10, access data associated with data set(s) generated by relationship generator 1002 and/or history relationship generator 1004 may be generated by access data generator 1006, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 7. The access data may include a pointer or locator pointing to the generated data set(s).
With continued reference to FIG. 10, one or more access elements may be generated by access element generator 1008, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 7. The generated access element(s) may include decentral packaging material identifier(s) and access data associated with one or more of the generated data set(s). The generated access elements may be provided by access element generator 1008 to data providing network node 124B. Data providing network node 124B may be configured to provide the access element(s) to a decentral registry, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4. Access to data set(s) generated by relationship generator 1002 and/or 1004 may be controlled by data providing network node 124B associated with the dedicated storage storing said data set(s), such as a dedicated storage associated with the packaging material producer 104.
Use of such access element(s) allows to gather respective relationship data set(s) and/or relationship history data set(s) containing respective decentral identifier(s) as well as associated relationships. Using said decentral identifier(s), product composition data and/or material composition data may be gathered, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13 to FIG. 15, to determine substances critical for re-use contained within the product(s) having been present within the packaging material or to determine the product(s) having been present within the packaging material. Using said data, cleaning and/or maintenance processes may be tailored to efficiently remove such critical substances or previously contained product residues, hence allowing prolonged lifetime of the re-usable packaging material as well as ensuring a high product quality when storing products within re-used packaging material. This allows to increase the circularity of the re-used packaging material and hence also the circularity of the material loop involving such packaging materials, avoiding generation of waste packaging materials.
FIG. 12 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to packaging material data associated with a packaging material using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a decentral network participant, such as a packaged product producer. Access to the digital twin or a part thereof (e.g. data set(s) contained in the digital twin, see FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B) may be requested by a decentral data consuming network node associated with a participant of the decentral network 130 (see FIG. 1). The participant may be a recycler 112 recycling waste packaging material (see FIG. 1 , not shown). The participant may be a packaged product producer 106 receiving used packaging material and performing at least one cleaning and/or maintenance operation on the used packaging material prior to reusing said packaging material (see FIG. 2). The packaging material may be a re-usable packaging material, such as a container, vessel, silo or the like. The packaging material may be associated with a digital twin. The digital twin may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The digital twin may include a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material and packaging material data. The packaging material data may include one or more data set(s), such as one or more data set(s) illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The packaging material data may include at least one measured physical and/or chemical property of the packaging material and/or at least one physical and/or chemical property determined from collected data associated with the production of the packaging material and/or the use of the packaging material. The packaging material data may include data related to the production of the packaging material. The data related to the production of the packaging material may include material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or a component thereof. The packaging material data may include history data associated with the history of products contained within the re-usable packaging material (see for example FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B).
The packaging material may be produced by packaging material producer 104, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4. A digital access element may be generated upon or after production of the packaging material, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4. The digital access element may be associated with the digital twin or the part thereof. The digital access element may contain a decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and access data. The access data may include digital representation(s) pointing to the packaging material data or parts thereof. The access data may include data set identifier(s) associated with data set(s) contained in the digital twin (see for example FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B). An exemplary digital access element is illustrated in FIG. 5. The digital access element may further include or relate to authentication and/or authorization information linked to the decentral identifier. The authentication and/or authorization information may be provided for authentication and/or authorization of the data providing network node 124 and/or the data consuming network node 116. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry node 812, for example by data providing network node 124 associated with an apparatus generating access element(s). Decentral registry node 812 may store decentral access element(s).
The packaging material as produced by the packaging material producer 104 may be provided in association with the digital access element to a packaging material consumer, such as packaged product producer 106. The packaging material consumer may use the packaging material to produce a packaged product. The packaged product may be connected to a code and may likewise be associated with an access element as previously described. The packaged product may be provided to product user 108. The product user 108 may use the product. Use of the product may include removal of the product from the packaging material, for example to produce further products. Hence the product user may correspond to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). After removal of the product from the packaging material, the used packaging material may be returned by the product user 108 to packaged product producer 106 or packaging material producer 104 (see also FIG. 2).
The used packaging material may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code. The code may encode the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material. The code may be linked to the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material. The recipient of the used packaging material, such as packaging material producer 104 or packaged product producer 106, may read the code through a code reader 1202. The code reader 1202 may be a smartphone running a code reading application, such as a QR code reader app. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the packaging material identifier. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the access data. The decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material, packaging material identifier and access data may be determined by code reader 1202. For instance, the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material determined by the code reader 1202 may be a DID and the code reader 1202 may be configured to retrieve the associated DID document (see also FIG. 5) containing at least part of the decentral identifiers and the access data, for example using a DID resolver. In another instance, the packaging material identifier may be determined by code reader 1202 and may be used to retrieve the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and associated access data, for example from a database, such as decentral registry node 812. Hence, code reader 1202 may be configured to retrieve the access element containing the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and access data from decentral registry node 812. Code reader 1202 may be configured to provide the decentral identifier(s) to a database 1206 associated with the packaged product producer 106. Code reader 1202 may be configured to provide the determined decentral identifier(s) and access data to decentral data consuming network node 124.
Code reader 1202 may be configured to display determined/retrieved data on a user interface as illustrated by reference sign 1204. The user interface may display the determined decentral identifier(s) (element ID, twin ID) associated with the packaging material and the determined access data (DT location). In this embodiment, access element includes a decentral identifier being different from the decentral packaging material identifier. In another embodiment, the decentral access element includes the decentral packaging material identifier. The user interface may further display the determined packaging material identifier (container ID). The user interface may also allow to initiate retrieval of the packaging material data or a part thereof based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and the access data as described in the following. This process may be initiated by the button denoted “Access DT”. Upon pressing said button, code reader 1202 may send a request to access the packaging material data or the part thereof to decentral data consuming network node 124. The decentral data consuming network node 116 associated with the packaged product producer 106 may generate a request to access the packaging material data or a part thereof. Decentral data consuming network node 116 may generate the request based on the data received from code reader 1202. For instance, decentral data consuming network node 116 may generate the request based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material received from code reader 1202. Data consuming network node 116 may generate the request based on the decentral identifier(s) provided to database 1206. For example, decentral data consuming network node 116 may be configured to retrieve the decentral identifier(s) and access data from decentral registry node 812 based on the identifier(s) stored in database 1206. The request generated by decentral data consuming network node 116 may include the decentral identifier(s) and a decentral participant identifier associated packaged product producer 106 operating the decentral data consuming network node 116. The decentral identifier(s) may include the decentral packaging material identifier. The decentral identifier(s) may further include one or more data set identifier(s) associated with data set(s) of the digital twin (see also FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B). Decentral data consuming network node 116 may be configured to determine the data providing network node 124 associated with the packaging material data based on the access data provided by code reader 1202 or retrieved from decentral registry node 812.
With reference to FIG. 16, decentral data consuming network node 116 may sent the request to access the packaging material data or a part thereof to the determined data providing network node 124 as signified by arrow 1208. The data providing network node 124 may be associated with the packaging material producer 104. The data providing network node 124 may be associated with the production producing the packaging material. The data providing network node 124 may be associated with the data owner of the packaging material data, such as the packaging material producer 104. In addition to the request, authentication and/or authorization information may be provided by decentral data consuming network node 116, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
With continued reference to FIG. 16, the request may be authenticated (see also FIG. 1 , FIG. 2). In particular, the decentral network node 116 requesting to access the packaging material data and/or the decentral data providing network node 124 providing access to said data may be authenticating. Such authentication may be based on the decentral identifiers associated with the decentral network nodes. The decentral identifiers may be associated with authentication mechanisms or identity tokens, such as a device certificate (X.509v3), a TLS connection certificate (X.509v3) and a ‘Dynamic Attribute Token’ (OAuth Access Token). If the authentication fails, access to the packaging material data, in particular material composition data and/or product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the recycling or re-use of the packaging material, may be denied. If the authentication is valid, an authorization step may follow.
With continued reference to FIG. 16, the request may be authorized by the data providing network node 124, for example by retrieving access rules from a database of the data providing network node 124 based on the decentral identifier(s) contained in the received request. The access rules may define data consuming network nodes allowed to access the packaging material data or a part thereof, for example via decentral participant identifier(s) associated with decentral participants operating data consuming network nodes. At least part of the retrieved access rules may be applied to the received request. This allows to filter decentral data consuming network nodes requesting access based on the decentral participant identifier(s) associated with said network nodes. If the request is not authorized, the peer-to- peer communication channel will be terminated by digital data providing network node 124 and no packaging material data will be provided.
If the request is authorized, data providing network node 124 may initiate contract negotiations with decentral data consuming network node 116. Data providing network node 124 may provide an electronic contract to decentral data consuming network node 116. The electronic contract may include access rule(s) associated with the decentral packaging material identifier. This allows the data consumer to determine access and usage conditions associated with the desired data. Data providing network node 124 and decentral data consuming network node 116 may be configured to negotiate an electronic contract and to sign the negotiated electronic contract. Use of the electronic contract ensures that the decentral data consuming network node 116 and further systems handling the packaging material data or a part thereof are complying to access rule(s) associated with the packaging material data. Upon signature of the electronic contract and with continued reference to FIG. 16, data providing network node 124 may retrieve or request packaging material data stored in digital twin storage 1212 based on the decentral identifier and optionally data set identifier(s) contained in the received request as designated by arrows 1210 and 1214. Data providing network node 124 may apply determined access rule(s) to the retrieved or received packaging material data. Afterwards data providing network node 124 may provide the packaging material data or parts thereof according to the applied access rule(s) to the decentral data consuming network node 116 as signified by arrow 1216.
With continued reference to FIG. 16, the packaging material data provided by data providing network node 124 may be stored in database 1206 associated with the decentral data consuming network node 116 according to the access rule(s) as signified by arrow 1218.
Through the access element associated with the packaging material and hence the packaging material data (e.g. the digital twin), packaging material data, in particular material composition data and/or product composition data and/or relationship history data set(s), may be shared under control of the respective data owner, such as the packaging material producer, in a simplified and customizable manner without compromising data security and data sovereignty. Sharing of such data allows to tailor operations associated with the preparation of the packaging material for re-use, such as cleaning operation(s) and/or maintenance operation(s) such that contaminations of the used packaging material from previously contained product(s) can be effectively and efficiently removed, hence allowing to prolong the lifetime of the reusable packaging material while allowing a high product quality. Sharing of such data allows to tailor recycling operations to recycle the packaging material such that a negative impact on the quality of the recyclate and hence a negative impact on the further processing of the recyclate due to contaminations may be avoided. This allows to improve the circularity of the packaging materials, hence reducing the overall environmental impact of the material ecosystem.
FIG. 13 illustrates an example system for obtaining composition data based on decentral identifier(s) associated with a packaging material. The system of FIG. 13 may be used to generate access elements as described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 7. The system of FIG. 13 may be used to generate relationship data set(s) and relationship history data set(s) as described in the context of FIG. 10 and FIG. 10. The composition data may include material composition data and/or product composition data. The packaging material may be a reusable packaging material. The packaging material may be a recyclable packaging material. The packaging material may be associated with a digital twin as described in the context of FIG. 12. The digital twin may include data related to the production of the packaging material, such as material composition data.
The used packaging material or the waste packaging material may be provided in association with an access element as previously described. The used packaging material or the waste packaging material may be connected to an identification as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10. The identification may be read through a code reader 1202. The code reader 1202 may be a smartphone running an identification application. With reference to FIG. 15, the data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral access element identifier (denoted hereinafter as DID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral packaging material identifier (hereinafter denoted as UUID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the packaging material identifier(s). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the access data. The decentral access element identifier or decentral packaging identifier and access data may be determined by code reader. For instance, the decentral access element identifier determined by the code reader may be a DID and the code reader may be configured to retrieve the associated DID document containing the decentral packaging material identifier and the access data, for example using a DID resolver. In another instance, the packaging material identifier is determined by code reader and used to retrieve the decentral access element identifier and associated access data, for example from a decentral registry node (see FIG. 12). Hence, code reader may be configured to retrieve the digital access element containing the decentral access element identifier and access data from decentral registry node. Code reader 1202 may be configured to perform an authentication step with decentral registry node 1302. For instance, code reader 1202 may access a decentral IAM network node (not shown) and decentral IAM network node may be configured to provide an access token to code reader 1202 upon successful authentication. This access token may be used by code reader 1202 to access decentral registry node 1302. Code reader 1202 may provide a decentral participant identifier associated with a participant of the material ecosystem to decentral IAM network node for authentication. Code reader 1202 may be configured to provide at least part of the decentral identifiers (e.g. UUID1) to decentral network node 1304. Code reader 1202 may be configured to provide authentication data, such as a decentral participant identifier and optionally authentication data, such as an access token, to decentral network node 1304.
Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to verify the authentication data received from code reader 1202 with decentral IAM network node 1 1306. Upon successful authentication and with reference to FIG. 15, decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access decentral registry node 1302 using the decentral identifier(s) received from 1202 and to retrieve data related to relationship data set(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s). For instance, decentral network node 1304 may use the decentral packaging material identifier provided from code reader 1202 to retrieve data related to relationship data set(s) associated with the packaging material (see also FIG. 14). Data related to a relationship data set may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation (e.g. access data) pointing to the respective relationship data set. The digital representation pointing to the relationship data set may point to the decentral data providing network node associated with the respective relationship data set. For instance, the data related to the relationship data set associated with the packaging material may comprise a digital representation (e.g. access data) pointing to decentral data providing network node(s) associated with packaging material data of packaging materials used to produce the used or waste packaging material. Decentral network node 1304 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 1304 (not shown) may be configured to access respective decentral data providing network node(s) associated with the digital representation(s) and to request relationship data set(s) associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier(s) from said decentral data providing network node(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 14.
With reference to FIG. 14, the relationship data set 1412 associated with the digital twin 1402 of the packaging material may include the decentral packaging material identifier (ID3) and the decentral packaged product identifier (ID4). The relationship data set may be included in a digital twin of the packaging material 1402. The digital twin 1402 may include a further relationship data set 1404 including the decentral packaging material identifier (ID3) and a decentral polymer identifier (ID2) associated with a polymer used to produce the packaging material. The relationship data sets may define a relationship between the respective identifiers, for example via a parent child relationship. For example, the relationship data set 1412 may define decentral packaged product identifier (ID4) as parent identifier and decentral packaging material identifier (ID3) as child identifier. The relationship data set 1412 may allow to determine products produced using the packaging material, hence allowing reverse tracking. This may allow to determine product composition data associated with the product contained in the packaging material upon receiving a used or waste packaging material which does not necessarily contain the decentral packaged product identifier any longer. The digital twin of the packaging material 1402 may be associated via relationship data set 1404 with the digital twin of the polymer 1406 used to produce the packaging material. The digital twin of the polymer 1406 may in turn be associated via relationship data set 1408 with the digital twin of a monomer 1410 used to produce the polymer.
The digital twin of the packaging material 1402 may be associated with the digital twin of the packaged product 1414 via relationship representation 1412. The digital twin of the packaged product may include a relationship data set 1416 containing the decentral packaged product identifier (ID4), the decentral packaging material identifier (ID3) and a decentral product identifier (ID5) of the product used to produce the packaged product by packaging the product with the packaging material. Hence, via the decentral packaged product identifier, access to data related to the production of the packaging material (e.g. material composition data) as well as data related to the production of the product (e.g. product composition data) may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 13.
The digital twin of the packaged product 1414 may be associated via relationship data set 1416 with the digital twin of the product 1418. The digital twin of the product 1418 may in turn be associated via relationship data set 1420 including the decentral product identifier (ID5) and decentral identifier(s) associated with production inputs used to produce the product (ID6, ID7) to digital twins of said production inputs.
Referring back to FIG. 13 with continued reference to FIG. 14, decentral network node 1304 may be configured to determine the decentral identifier(s) contained in said relationship data set(s). Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access decentral registry node 1302 using the determined decentral identifier(s) to determine access data associated with said decentral identifier(s). Using said decentral identifier(s) and access data, decentral network node 1304 a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 1304 (not shown) may be configured to access the digital twin or a part thereof associated with said decentral identifier(s). Decentral network node 1304 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 1304 (not shown) may be configured to access data related to the production of the packaging material using the decentral packaging material identifier, the access data and optionally the decentral participant identifier provided by code reader 1202 from respective decentral data providing network node(s).
In this example, decentral network node 1304 may receive a decentral packaging material identifier associated with a used or waste packaging material from code reader 1202. The decentral network node 1304 may access decentral registry node 1302 using said decentral packaging material identifier to determine access elements associated with the decentral packaging material identifier. The determined access element(s) may contain access data pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with packaging material data. The packaging material data may be stored on storage environment 1212 associated with the decentral data providing network node 124 associated with the packaging material producer. The packaging material data may include the data structure illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. With reference to FIG. 14, the packaging material data may include a relationship data set indicating decentral identifier(s) associated with production input(s) used to produce the packaging material, such as a polymer and a monomer. Decentral network node 1304 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access the relationship data set from the decentral data providing network node 124. Decentral network node 1304 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access packaging material data, in particular material composition data, from the decentral data providing network node 124. Access to the packaging material data may be authorized based on the decentral participant identifier provided by code reader 1202. Access to the packaging material data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node associated with said packaging material data. This ensures that packaging material data can only be accessed by authorized participants of the packaging material ecosystem, hence avoiding uncontrolled access to the data related to the production of the packaging material.
Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to retrieve decentral identifier(s) associated with product(s) contained within the packaging material from the accessed relationship data sets. With reference to FIG. 14, decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access relationship data set 1412 including the decentral packaged product identifier. Using said decentral packaged product identifier, decentral network node 1304 may determine the associated access element from decentral registry node 1302 and may use the access data to access packaged product data (e.g. the digital twin 1414) including relationship data set 1416 containing the decentral product identifier of the product having been contained within the used or waste packaging material. Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access one or more access element(s) associated with said decentral product identifier(s) from decentral registry node 1302 using the determined decentral product identifier(s). Decentral network node 1304 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship data set(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 116 associated with packaged product producer 106. The product data may be stored in a storage environment ( DT storage 3 1310) associated with the decentral data providing network node 116. DT storage 3 1310 may be associated with or under control of the packaged product producer 106. Decentral network node 1304 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access product data as described previously.
Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to retrieve decentral identifier(s) associated with input materials used to produce the packaging material, such as the polymer and monomer, from the accessed relationship data set(s). Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to retrieve decentral identifier(s) associated with input materials used to produce the product, from the accessed relationship data set(s). Decentral network node 1304 may be configured to access one or more access elements associated with said decentral identifier(s) from decentral registry node 1302 using the determined decentral identifier(s) as previously described. Decentral network node 1304 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship data set(s), for example from data providing network node 1312 associated with a polymer producer and dedicated storage 1308 containing polymer data associated with the polymer. Decentral network node 1304 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access polymer data as described previously.
The same procedure may be performed for production input(s) used to produce the product. Hence, decentral network node 1304 may be configured to determine, based on the accessed relationship data set(s) and the linking between decentral identifier(s) of production inputs and resulting products/packaging materials, a bill of material tree associated with the packaged product including the packaging material and the product. The bill of material tree may represent relationships between all production inputs used to produce the product, the packaging material and the packaged product. Recursive determination of decentral identifier(s) using relationship representation(s) hence allows to obtain material composition data and/or product composition data.
The material data gathered by decentral network node 1304 may be provided to code reader 1202. The gathered data may be used to control the sorting and/or recycling of waste packaging materials. The gathered data may be used to determine cleaning and/or maintenance operations to be performed on the used packaging material.
FIG. 15A illustrates a method for obtaining data related to the production of the packaging materials and/or products based on decentral identifier(s) and relationships. The method may be implemented in a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1 to FIG. 10.
A decentral identifier associated with a decentral network participant may be provided to the decentral network node providing access to data e.g. of a producer of the material chain as for example illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The decentral network participant may be a production participant of the production chain. The decentral network participant may be any participant of the material loop illustrated in the example of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, e.g. including production and recycling chain. The decentral identifier associated with a decentral network participant requesting access may include a string and/or numbers. The decentral identifier associated with the decentral network participant requesting access may be associated with authentication schemes, such as a private-public key scheme. Use of a decentral identifier associated with a decentral network participant requesting access allows to improve security with respect to access of data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof and/or the data related to the production of the packaged product, since access to data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be restricted and only defined decentral network participants may be allowed to access such data, for example as illustrated in the context of FIG. 12. The decentral identifier associated with a decentral network participant requesting access may be provided to a decentral identity management access node of the decentral network. The decentral identity management access node may be configured to perform authentication steps with the provider of the decentral participant identifier. The decentral identity management access node may provide an access token, if authorization is performed successfully. This access token may be presented to the decentral network node providing access to data. Authentication ensures that gathering of data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof and/or the data related to the production of the packaged product using the decentral network node requesting access can only be initiated by authenticated decentral network participants. This allows to improve security since it avoids that complete bill of material trees for a product or part thereof which may contain sensitive data with respect to supply chain information is obtained by unauthenticated entities.
The decentral network node requesting access may obtain one or more access element(s) based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material and/or the product provided for the decentral registry node. The decentral registry node may store decentral identifier(s) associated with access elements as for example described in the context of FIG. 4, FIG. 7 and FIG. 10.
The decentral network node requesting access may access said decentral registry using the decentral identifier(s) to determine the one or more access elements. The access elements may include a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material or the product and access data pointing to the respective digital twin or a part thereof or the respective relationship data set. The access data may comprise at least one interface to a decentral data providing network node associated with said access data. It may further include at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said access data. It may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service Endpoint), that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The access element(s) pointing to the access data may hence be uniquely associated with the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material or the product. The access data may be regarded as locator indicating the location or dedicated data storage(s) where the respective digital twin or relationship data set is stored.
The relationship data set(s) may specify relationship(s) between the packaging material and components thereof and production inputs, such as materials, used to produce the packaging material or the component thereof. The relationship data set(s) may specify relationship(s) between the product and production inputs, such as materials, used to produce the product. The relationship data set(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material or component thereof. This allows to determine the respective relationship data set(s) using the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material or component thereof. The relationship data set(s) may specify that the production input, such as material, was used to produce the packaging material or the part thereof and/or that the packaging material or the part thereof was produced using the materials. The relationship data set(s) may specify that the production input, such as material, was used to produce the product and/or that the product was produced using the materials. The relationship data set may be associated with a relationship between the packaging material or the part thereof and each production input, such as material, used to produce the packaging material or the part thereof, for example using the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material and material identifier(s) associated with all production inputs, such as materials, used to produce the packaging material or the part thereof. The relationship data set may be associated with a relationship between the product and each production input, such as material, used to produce the product, for example using the decentral identifier associated with the product and material identifier(s) associated with all production inputs, such as materials, used to produce the product. Hence, such relationship may also specify raw materials and intermediate products used in the production of the packaging material or the part thereof or the product. The relationship data set(s) may be associated with the relationship between input material(s) and output material(s) of a single production step or stage of the production chain. Such relationship may be linked to mirror the whole article production chain. Examples of relationship data set(s) which may be used to determine the decentral material identifier(s) are, for example, illustrated in FIG. 14. Determining decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material or components thereof or the product using the relationship data set(s) may allow to construct a bill of material tree structure for the packaged product including the product and the packaging material.
The decentral network node requesting access to data may be configured to access relationship data set(s) based on the access element(s) retrieved from the decentral registry node. The decentral network node may be in communication with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access relationship data set(s) and data related to the production of the packaging material or the component thereof, such as material composition data. The decentral network node may be in communication with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access relationship data set(s) and data related to the production of the product, such as product composition data. The relationship data set(s) may be accessed from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with a storage environment storing the respective relationship data set. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the owner of the data set. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with any participant of the production chain, such as the input material producer(s) 102 or the packaged product producer 106. The relationship data set may include the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material or the product and one or more decentral material identifier(s) associated with production input(s), such as materials, used to produce the packaging material or the product, respectively (denoted as child identifier(s) hereinafter).
Decentral child identifier(s) associated with the decentral packaging material identifier or decentral product identifier may be determined based on the obtained relationship data set(s). The decentral packaging material identifier may be regarded as decentral parent identifier. The decentral child identifier(s) may correspond to material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the packaging material or the part thereof. The decentral product identifier may be regarded as decentral parent identifier. The decentral child identifier(s) may correspond to material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the product. The relationship data set may contain one or more decentral child identifier(s) . The relationship data set may include the decentral packaging material or product identifier.
This allows to link the decentral packaging material or product identifier to respective child identifier(s).
It may be determined whether to obtain data associated with the decentral child identifier(s) depending on the decentral child identifier having further child identifiers. For example, if the child identifier(s) are associated with material composition data and/or product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling or re-use of the packaging material or component thereof, data may be obtained. If the child identifier(s) are not associated with material composition data and/or product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling or re-use of the packaging material or component thereof, no data may be obtained. The determination may be made based on data provided to the decentral network node. For instance, data associated with a defined data set (also called asset hereinafter) may be provided and this data may be used to determine whether to retrieve further data or not. The data set may relate to material composition data and/or product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling or re-use. The material composition data and/or the product composition data may include one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling per recycling process, recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data and/or product composition data. Based on such information provided to the registry node and/or the data providing network node, it may be determined if data is to be provided. If material composition data and/or product composition data relating to substances critical for recycling or re-use is to be obtained, the method obtains data. Otherwise, it proceeds to check for decentral child identifiers.
Data related to production, such as the material composition data and/or product composition data, may be obtained based on the determined decentral child identifier(s). The data related to production, such as the material composition data and/or product composition data, may be obtained from decentral data providing network nodes associated with said data. Respective decentral data providing network nodes may be determined by the decentral network node using the determined decentral child identifier(s). For instance, the decentral child identifier(s) may be associated with an access element including access data pointing to the data related to production or parts thereof. Said access data may correspond to an endpoint address associated with a respective decentral data providing network node. The access element(s) may be stored on the decentral registry node and may be determined using the decentral child identifier(s) determined before. The access element(s) may be used to access the data related to production at the decentral data providing network node associated with said data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a storage environment storing the data related to production or parts thereof. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a data owner of the data related to production. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the producer of the packaging material or product. Data exchange may be performed after respective authentication and authorization processes. Authorization may be based on the decentral participant identifier. For instance, the decentral data providing network node may determine whether the data related to production may be accessed using authorization or access rules associated with the provided decentral participant identifier. The accessed data related to production may be transferred to and stored in a storage environment associated with the decentral network node requesting access to said data.
It may be determined whether relationships of determined decentral child identifier(s) are existing. For this purpose, the decentral network node requesting data may access the decentral registry node and may determine whether access elements(s) associated with the determined decentral child identifier(s) is existing in said registry. If this is the case, the method proceeds to determine child identifier(s). If this is not the case, the method proceeds to access and obtain data.
Access element(s) associated with determined decentral child identifier(s) may be obtained from the decentral registry network node as described above. The access data contained therein may be used to access associated relationship data set(s) as described above. The decentral child identifier(s) determined may be regarded as decentral parent identifier(s). The method may return to such determination and repeat the steps using the decentral child identifier(s) determined until no further decentral child identifier(s) are existing, e.g. until the leaf nodes of the bill of material tree are reached. Recursively determining decentral child identifier(s) allows to obtain the complete bill of material tree structure associated with a packaged product, e.g. allows to determine the relationships between materials used to produce the packaged product.
In the last step, the data related to the production, such as material composition data and/or product composition data, gathered may be provided. Gathered data may include all data related to production gathered based on child identifiers from different participant network nodes. The gathered data related to production may be provided to a storage environment associated with network node requesting data. The network node requesting data related to production may be a part of the decentral network, e.g. may be a decentral data consuming network node.
FIG. 15B illustrates a method for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used. The packaging material may be used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material. The packaging material may be produced by a packaging material producer. The produced packaging material may be used by a product producer to produce a packaged product. The packaged product may contain a product packaged within the packaging material. The packaging material may be associated with an access element. The access element may allow access to packaging material data associated with the packaging material. The access element may include the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material and access data. The access data may include a digital representation for accessing the packaging material data or parts thereof. The packaging material data may include material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material. The packaging material data may include history data relating to the use, application and/or origin of the packaging material. The packaging material data may be stored in a database accessible by or associated with the data owner of the packaging material data. The data owner may control access to such database, for example via the decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner.
A decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used may be provided. The decentral identifier may be provided via an identification element attached to the packaging material, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12. The decentral identifier may be associated with the packaging material data associated with the packaging material. The decentral identifier may be linked to or associated with the digital representation for accessing the packaging material data or parts thereof.
Access data related to the provided decentral identifier may be gathered based on one or more access element(s) associated with the packaging material. The access element(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 4 to 7. The access element(s) may be stored in decentral registry/ies associated with data owner(s) of the respective packaging material data. The access element(s) may be accessible by decentral data consumer network node(s) associated with packaging material re-users and/or packaging material recyclers. The access element(s) may be gathered by decentral network consuming node(s) based on the provided decentral identifier(s). The access element(s) may be gathered upon successful authentication of the decentral data consuming network node by the decentral data providing network node associated with the decentral registry storing the access element(s). Authentication may be performed, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 12. The access element(s) may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 15A.
Based on the gathered access data, access to data related to the production of the packaging material or a component thereof from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled or reused, in particular per production stage, may be requested. In addition or alternatively, access to data related to a production of the packaged product from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage may be requested based on the gathered access data. Access may be requested by the decentral data consuming network node associated with the product producer re-used the used packaging material and/or the recycler recycling the used packaging material. Access may be requested at decentral data providing network node(s) associated with packaging material producer(s). The request for access to the data related to the production of the packaging material, such as packaging material data, may include the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material. The request may further include the decentral participant identifier associated with the decentral data consuming node requesting the access. The access data may be used to determine the decentral data providing network node associated with the database storing the respective data related to the production of the packaging material. The present disclosure has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments and examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims.
Any steps presented herein can be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a specific order of these steps. It is also not required that the different steps are performed at a certain place or in a certain computing node of a distributed system, i.e. each of the steps may be performed at different computing nodes using different equipment/data processing.
As used herein ..determining" also includes ..initiating or causing to determine", “generating" also includes ..initiating and/or causing to generate" and “providing” also includes “initiating or causing to determine, generate, select, send and/or receive”. “Initiating or causing to perform an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action.
In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation. In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” or “including” or similar wording does not exclude other elements or steps and shall not be construed limiting to the elements or steps lined out. The indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation or further elements may be included.
Providing in the scope of this disclosure may include any interface configured to provide data. This may include an application programming interface, a human-machine interface such as a display and/or a software module interface. Providing may include communication of data or submission of data to the interface, in particular display to a user or use of the data by the receiving entity.

Claims

1. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps of:
• collecting data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaging material includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof;
• providing one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage;
• generating access data associated with the material composition data;
• generating an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the access data;
• providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the product is a chemical product.
3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling is collected in association with the production of the packaging material by the producer of the packaging material.
4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein data related to the production of the packaging material or a component thereof includes input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the packaging material, in particular related decentral identifiers of the one or more production input(s).
5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, further including a step of generating a relationship access element based on decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more input(s) used to produce the packaging material.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the relationship access element includes generating a relationship data set based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more input(s) used to produce the packaging material, generating relationship access data associated with the relationship data set, providing a decentral relationship identifier associated with the relationship data set, generating a relationship access element including the decentral relationship identifier and the relationship access data.
7. The method of claim 5 or 6, further including a step of providing the relationship access element for access to a relationship data set by one or more data consuming network node(s) under control of the data providing network node associated with the producer of the packaging material.
8. The method of any one of claims 5 to 7, the relationship access element is provided for access to a relationship data set specifying relationship(s) between production input(s) and the packaging material produced by the producer of the packaging material, wherein the producer of the packaging material provides access to the relationship access element through the data providing network node associated with said producer of the packaging material.
9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the material composition data includes one or more material composition data set(s) specifying substances critical for recycling the packaging material or the component thereof by a chemical and/or physical and/or thermal recycling process.
10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the material composition data includes one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material per recycling process, recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data.
11 . The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the access element(s) may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) depending on a recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant identifier, wherein the access element is provided for access to material composition data set(s) that include substances critical for recycling depending on the recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant identifier by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more recycler(s) executing one or more recycling process(es).
12. An apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a packaging material or a component thereof, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the apparatus comprising:
• a data collection interface configured to collect data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage, wherein the data related to the production of the packaging material includes material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the packaging material or component thereof;
• an identifier providing interface configured to provide one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the packaging material or a component thereof, in particular per production stage; • an access data generator configured to generate access data associated with the material composition data;
• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the access data;
• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the material composition data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of the decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the packaging material or the packaged product.
13. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the method comprising the steps:
• providing a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or reused;
• gathering based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or by the apparatuses as claimed in claim 12, access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• requesting - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled or re-used, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage.
14. An apparatus for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a packaging material to be recycled or re-used, wherein the packaging material is used to produce a packaged product by packaging a product with the packaging material, the apparatus comprising:
• an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• an access data retriever configured to gather based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or by the apparatuses as claimed in claim 12 access data related to the decentral identifier associated with the packaging material to be recycled or re-used;
• a decentral network interface configured to request - based on the gathered access data - access to data related to a production of the packaging material or a component thereof from one or more producer(s) of the packaging material to be recycled or re-used, in particular per production stage, and/or requesting access to data related to a production of the packaged product from one or more producer(s) of the packaged product, in particular per production stage.
15. A packaging material associated with an access element generated and provided according to the method of any one of claim 1 to 11 or by the apparatus of claim 12.
EP24729868.0A 2023-06-20 2024-06-04 Methods and systems enabling circularity for packaging materials Pending EP4732221A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP23180436 2023-06-20
PCT/EP2024/065309 WO2024260721A1 (en) 2023-06-20 2024-06-04 Methods and systems enabling circularity for packaging materials

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EP4732221A1 true EP4732221A1 (en) 2026-04-29

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WO (1) WO2024260721A1 (en)

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP3705197A1 (en) * 2019-03-08 2020-09-09 Philippe Graf von Stauffenberg Closed loop recycling process and system
EP3983908A4 (en) * 2019-06-14 2023-07-05 Newlight Technologies, Inc. BLOCKCHAIN TRACKING OF CARBON CREDITS FOR MATERIALS WITH SEQUESTRATED CARBON
US12608719B2 (en) * 2021-08-13 2026-04-21 Basf Se Supply chain optimization

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