EP4732224A1

EP4732224A1 - Plastic article recycling

Info

Publication number: EP4732224A1
Application number: EP24825427.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Nicole Graf; Bastian GRUMBRECHT; Mathias Feyen; Mathias Haake; Robert Pack; Steffen Thomas KLOSTERHALFEN; Marion Mayer; Georg Arnold Krei; Stefan STREGE; Bodo FREY
Original assignee: BASF SE
Current assignee: BASF SE
Priority date: 2023-06-20
Filing date: 2024-06-18
Publication date: 2026-04-29
Also published as: WO2024261635A1; CN121359157A; KR20260025387A

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of sustainability, in particular to the field of plastic recycling. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses, systems, decentral network nodes, plastics articles and computer elements for monitoring substances critical for recycling of a plastic article or component thereof.

Description

PLASTIC ARTICLE RECYCLING

TECHNICAL FIELD

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Chemical products for plastic are used in diverse applications and end up in multiple supply chains to produce a diversity of plastic articles. Recycling of plastic articles is challenging owing to the complexity in sorting the diverse set of waste. This is particularly challenging for mixed plastic waste. The refeed of such plastic material into chemical value chains is particularly challenging since chemical plants are large scale plants with narrow feed specifications. Recycling processes to date have difficulties to fulfill such narrow feed specification for the recyclate produced from mixed plastic waste. Chemical producers are hence hampered in the use of such recyclates.

SUMMARY

In one aspect a method for monitoring production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of an article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

- collecting data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, in relation to production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof;

- providing one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced article, such as a plastic article, or component thereof;

- generating one or more digital representation(s) of the data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data;

- generating one or more access element(s) including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s);

- providing the one or more access element(s) to a decentral network for access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. 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 article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof.

In another aspect an apparatus for monitoring production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of an article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the apparatus comprising:

- a data collection interface configured to collect data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, in relation to production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof;

- a identifier providing interface configured to provide one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof;

- a representation generator configured to generate one or more digital representation(s) of the data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data;

- an access element generator configured to generate one or more access element(s) including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s);

- a decentral network interface configured to provide the one or more access element(s) to a decentral network for access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. 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 article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof.

- collecting data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article, per production stage;

- providing one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the article, such as a plastic article, per production stage;

- generating one or more digital representation(s) of the data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data; - generating one or more access element(s) including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation (s);

- providing one or more access element(s) to a decentral network for access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. 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 per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article.

In another aspect an apparatus for monitoring production properties, such as one or more substances critical for recycling of an article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the apparatus comprising:

- a data collection interface configured to collect data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, per production stage;

- a identifier providing interface configured to provide one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the article, such as a plastic article, per production stage;

- a decentral network interface configured to provide the one or more access element(s) to a decentral network for access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. 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 per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article.

In another aspect a method for accessing production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of an article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled, the method comprising the steps:

- providing a decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, 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 one or more representation(s) related to the decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- requesting access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from a producer of the article, such as a plastic article, and/or one or more producer(s) of component(s) of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled. In another aspect an apparatus for accessing production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical of an article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled, the apparatus comprising:

- an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- a representation 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 one or more representation^) related to the decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- an access requestor configured to request access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from a producer of the article, such as a plastic article, and/or one or more producer(s) of component(s) of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled.

In another aspect a method for accessing production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical of a article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled, the method comprising the steps:

- requesting access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled.

In another aspect an apparatus for accessing production properties, such as one or more substance(s) critical of a article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled, the apparatus comprising:

- a representation 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 one or more repre- sentation(s) related to the decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- an access requestor configured to request access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producers) per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled. In another aspect disclosed is a method for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the method comprising the steps:

- requesting access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from the producer of the article, such as a plastic article, and/or the producer(s) of components of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- controlling and/or monitoring the process for recycling the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof based on the data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data.

In another aspect disclosed is an apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the apparatus comprising:

- an access requestor configured to request access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from a producer of the article, such as a plastic article, and/or one or more producer(s) of component(s) of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- a controlling and/or monitoring interface configured to control and/or monitor the process for recycling the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof based on the data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data.

In another aspect disclosed is a method for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof, the method comprising the steps:

- providing a decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, 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 one or more representation(s) related to the decentral identifier associated with the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- requesting access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producer(s) per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

- an access requestor configured to request access to data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, from one or more producers) per production stage of the article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled;

In another aspect disclosed is a sorting/recycling system including the apparatus for controlling and/or monitoring a process for recycling a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof and a sorting/recycling apparatus configured to sort the article, such as a plastic article, into at least one waste fraction.

In another aspect disclosed is a decentral network node configured to provide an access element according to the methods for monitoring one or more substances critical for recycling of a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof as disclosed herein. In another aspect disclosed is a decentral network node configured to access data related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, according to the methods for accessing one or more substances critical of a article, such as a plastic article, to be recycled as disclosed herein.

In another aspect disclosed is a article, such as a plastic article, associated with the access element generated and provided according to the methods or by the apparatuses for monitoring one or more substances critical for recycling of a article, such as a plastic article, or a component thereof as disclosed herein.

In another aspect the present disclosure relates to a computer element, such as a computer program or computer readable medium, with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) e.g. of a decentral network is configured to carry out the steps of the method(s) disclosed herein or is configured to be carried out by the apparatus(es) disclosed herein.

Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the systems, apparatuses, chemical products, chemical product passports, authorization rules, uses and computer elements 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 plastic recycling and the quality of recyclate the sharing of data to monitor material flows is crucial. 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 related to the production of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof, e.g. material composition data, relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof per production stage more efficient and reliable recycling can be ensured through accessing such data on recycling in a controlled manner.

In particular, by collecting data related to contaminants for recycling at the production stage of the article, such as a plastic article, or the component thereof and providing access to such data via access elements through a decentral network enables critical data sharing to participants of the material loop. Further in particular, by using digital relationships stored decentrally 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 of plastics such as the contaminants for recycling. 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 recy- clate quality allows for more targeted data sharing resulting in more reliable and efficient recycling of plastic articles.

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.

The article may contain any article in particular an article containing plastic. Any reference to article containing plastic, the waste article or the plastic article may also refer to the article in general. Any description referring to article containing plastic, the waste article or the plastic article may be viewed as example of the article and are similarly applicable to the article. The article containing plastic, the waste article or the plastic article may include any product made of plastic material, any product including plastic material or any product including the article containing plastic. The article containing plastic, the waste article or the plastic article may include a component including one or more plastic material(s). The component may be a chemical component or a discrete component of the plastic article. Plastic material may relate to a plastic compound, a combination of plastic compounds, a composite material, a combination of composite materials, a foamed material, a combination of foamed materials, an additive, a combination of additive, or combinations thereof. Plastic material may comprise one or more elements selected from the group consisting of: polyethylene (PE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear LDPE (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polyoxmethylene (POM), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), poly ethylene terephthalate (PET), poly butylene terephthalate (PBT), acrylnitril-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyurethane (PU), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polystyrene (PS), polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or polycarbonate (PC). Articles containing plastics may include thermosets, e.g. hard and durable plastics used, for instance, in car parts, thermoplastics e.g. moulded into packaging and/or elastomers, e.g. soft plastics with rubber-like properties. Uses of articles containing plastics may include packaging for food or non-food products, textiles, building and construction, batteries, automotive or electronics. Application of articles containing plastics may include bottles, mattresses, foils, fibers, or the like.

Further examples of plastic material included in waste streams include high density polyethylene and copolymers thereof, low density polyethylene and copolymers thereof, polypropylene and copolymers thereof, other polyolefins, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), polyesters including polyethylene terephthalate, copolyesters and terephthalate copolyesters (e.g. containing residues of TMCD, CHDM, propylene glycol, or NPG monomers), polyethylene terephthalate, polyamides, poly(methyl methacrylate), polytetrafluoroethylene, acrylobutadienestyrene (ABS), polyurethanes, cellulosics and deri- vates thereof such as cellulose acetate, cellulose diacetate, cellulose triacetate, cellulose propionate, cellulose butyrate; regenerated cellulosics such as viscose and rayons, epoxy, polyamides, phenolic resins, polyacetal, polycarbonates, polyphenylene-based alloys, polypropylene and copolymers thereof, polystyrene, styrenic compounds, vinyl based compounds, styrene acrylonitrile, thermoplastic elastomers, and urea based polymers and melamine containing polymers.

Critical substance(s) for recycling may be contained in the plastic article. Critical substance(s) for recycling may impede the quality of recyclate produced by the recycling process. Critical substance(s) for recycling may include substances that are contained in the plastic article. 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.

The critical substance(s) for recycling may include substances specific for one or more recycling processes). The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a chemical or mechanical recycling process. The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a specific chemical recycling process, e.g. a chemical 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. The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a chemical recycling process to produce a recyclate mixture including at least hydrogen and carbon monoxide for a hydrogen-based chemical process. The recyclate mixture may include 30 to 60 % carbon monoxide and 25 to 30 % hydrogen. The recyclate mixture may be used as hydrogen source in chemical process chemically converting educts to products. The recyclate mixture may be produced by gasification. The critical sub- stance(s) for recycling may relate to a chemical recycling process to produce a monomer recyclate for a polymer production process. The monomer recyclate may include one or more building block(s) of the polymer. The monomer recyclate may include the building block(s) to produce one or more polymer(s). The monomer recyclate may be produced by depolymerization. The critical substance(s) for recycling may relate to a solvent-based recycling process to produce a polymer recyclate for an article or component production process. The polymer recyclate may include one or more polymer type(s) or plastic compound(s). The polymer recyclate may be produced by dissolution.

Data relating to production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected at the production stage of the plastic article or the component thereof by the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected in relation to production of the plastic article or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected prior to, on, during or after production of the plastic article or the component thereof. Data relating to production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected per production stage of the plastic article. Production stage may include any production step in the material chain of the plastic article. For example, the production stage may include the production of the monomer or the polymer. Further for example, the production stage may include the production using the monomer or the polymer, such as compounding, converting or moulding. Further for example, the production stage may include the production of the plastic article using any component based on the monomer or the polymer.

An identifier element may be associated with or connected to the plastic article or the component thereof. The identifier element may be associated with or connected to the plastic article or the component thereof at least on production of the plastic article or component thereof. Through the identifier element the digital twin of the article or the component thereof may be accessible through the decentral network. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the article or the component thereof. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the digital article or component identifier. The digital article or component identifier may uniquely relate to the article or component. This way material composition data may be provided per article/compo- nent or for individual articles/components. The article or component identifier may include one or more decentral identifier(s) uniquely related to the article or component. The article or component identifier may relate to one or more decentral identifier(s) signifying the digital twin of the physical entity of the article 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 articles 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 articles or components of the material chain. The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the producer of the article or component and the article or component. 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 article or component and article or component access to material composition data may be controlled by the producer of the article or component. 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, monomer producer, polymer producer, intermediate chemical producer, intermediate part producer, component producer, component assembly producer, article producer, article user, article collector, article sorter and/or article recycler. The decentral identifier may be associated with material entities of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including chemical product, monomer, polymer, intermediate chemical, intermediate part, component, component assembly, and/or article.

The article or component(s) thereof may be associated with the access element for the decentral network, that may include a digital representation associated with the plastic article. The access element may comprise or be associated with a digital representation of material composition data. The digital representation of the material composition data may be provided to the decentral network. The digital representation of the material composition data may be provided by a decentral network node associated with a dedicated storage of the producer of the article or the component thereof. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the material composition data or part thereof. The digital representation may include a representation of material composition data or parts thereof. The access element may include the digital representation of the material composition data, authentication information and/or the decentral identifiers). The digital representation may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage address associated with the producer of the article or the component thereof. The digital representation(s) may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the plastic article or component thereof and storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to data related to the production of the plastic article or component thereof such as the material 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 plastic article or component thereof and storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof.

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 plastic article or a component thereof. The access element may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier and the digital representation. The access element may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier and the digital article representation. 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 plastic article or the component. The one or more authorization mechanisms may be provided per production stage or per producer in the plastic article production chain. The digital representation may includes one or more digital link(s) pointing to data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof or parts thereof.

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 plastic article or the component thereof, such as the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof. The data generated by the producer of the plastic article 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 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 plastic article or the component thereof, such as the sorter or recycler of the plastic article or the component thereof. The data generated by the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof 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 plastic article or the component thereof may be collected. The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include material composition data.

In one embodiment material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected in association with the production of the plastic article or the component thereof by the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected on production of the plastic article or the component thereof by the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected in relation to production of the plastic article 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 plastic article or the component thereof. Material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling may be collected per production stage of the plastic article. Production stage may include any production step in the material chain of the plastic article. For example, the production stage may include the production of the monomer or the polymer. Further for example, the production stage may include the production using the monomer or the polymer, such as compounding, converting or moulding. Further for example, the production stage may include the production of the plastic article using any component based on the monomer or the polymer.

In another embodiment input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected. The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. By collecting the input data, the production input(s) can be related to the production output(s) per production stage of the plastic article and tracking of material flows across material participants of the article production chain can be enabled.

Data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include article history data relating to the use, application and/or origin of the plastic article or the component thereof. By collecting article history data, such data may be accessed by material participants of the recycling chain to improve sorting and/or recycling processes. The data related to the production of the plastic article 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 plastic article or the component thereof.

In another embodiment input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular the related decentral identifiers of the one or more production input(s) are collected. The input data may include decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. Decentral identifiers) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof may be gathered.

In another embodiment a digital relationship based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof is generated. The digital relationship may include the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component and the decentral identifier(s) of the plastic article or the component produced from such production inputs. The digital relationship 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 plastic article or the component may be assigned child identifier. The decentral identifier(s) of the plastic article or the component produced from such production inputs may be assigned parent identifier. The digital relationship may be generated per production stage of the plastic article. In other words, the digital relationship may be generated per producer of the production chain for the plastic article. The digital relationship may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital relationship may be stored per production stage of the plastic article. In other words, the digital relationship may be stored per producer of the production chain for the plastic article.

In another embodiment a decentral relationship identifier associated with the digital relationship is provided, wherein a relationship representation of the digital relationship is generated, wherein a relationship access element including the decentral relationship identifier and the relationship representation is generated, wherein the relationship access element is provided for access to the digital relationship 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. The relationship presentation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to the relationship between production input(s) and the plastic article or the component thereof. The relationship representation may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage address associated with the producer of the article or the component thereof. The relationship representation may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the plastic article or component thereof and storing the digital relationship. The digital representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to the digital relationship. The digital representation 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 plastic article or component thereof and storing the digital relationship. The relationship access element may be generated per production stage or per producer of the production chain for the plastic article. 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.

In another embodiment the relationship access element is provided for access to the digital relationship between production input(s) and the plastic article or the component thereof as used in the production process of the producer providing access through the data producing node associated with said producer. The relationship access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to the digital relationship depending on a decentral participant identifier or the decentral participant type. The decentral participant identifier may be associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the digital relationship. 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 plastic article on recycling. This way access to sensitive data relating to the bill of material of the plastic article in the production chain can be restricted to specific network nodes for which the data access is relevant, such as the material composition or article 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 plastic article production chain.

In another embodiment the material composition data set(s) relate to or specify substances critical for recycling the plastic article or the component thereof by a mechanical and/or chemical recycling process e.g. to produce a hydrocarbon recyclate for a petrochemical process, to produce a recyclate mixture including at least hydrogen and carbon monoxide for a hydrogen-based chemical process or to produce a monomer recyclate for a polymer production process, and/or by a solvent-based recycling process e.g. to produce a polymer recyclate for an article or component production process.

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 article or component thereof, recyclate content used to produce the article or component thereof, monomer content used to produce the article or component thereof and/or polymer content used to produce the article or component thereof.

In another embodiment the material composition data includes one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling per recycling process, recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier. The participant identifier may be 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. Recycling process may relate to mechanical and/or chemical recycling process including solvent-based recycling. Recyclate use may relate to the reuse of recyclate produced by such recycling process. Recyclate use may relate to a hydrocarbon recyclate for a petrochemical or refinery process, a recyclate mixture including at least hydrogen and carbon monoxide for a hydrogen-based chemical process, a monomer recyclate for a polymer production process, and/or a polymer recyclate for an article production process.

In another embodiment the access element is provided for access to material composition data set(s) that include substances critical for recycling depending on one or more recycling process(s), recyclate use(s) and/or participant type(s) by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more participants of the recycling chain, such as sorter(s), collector(s) and/or recycler(s) executing one or more process(es) for recycling. The access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) depending on one or more recycling process(s), recyclate use(s) and/or participant type(s). The access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) depending on 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 or recycling chain, in particular sorter, collector and/or recycler system participants.

In another embodiment the material composition data may be accessed by one or more participant(s) of the material or recycling chain, in particular sorter, collector and/or recycler system participant(s), through the one or more access element(s) generated according to the methods disclosed herein. The material composition data may be accessed per production stage of the plastic article by one or more participant(s) of the material or recycling chain, in particular sorter, collector and/or recycler system participant(s). The material composition data may be accessed per production stage of the plastic article from one or more participant(s) of the production chain, in particular plastic article or component producer(s). The material composition data may be accessed recursively based on one or more relationship representation(s) provided by one or more participant(s) of the production chain, in particular plastic article or component producers). The one or more relationship representation(s) provided by one or more participant(s) of the production chain, in particular plastic article or component producer(s), to the decentral network may be accessed recursively by one or more participant(s) of the material or recycling chain, in particular sorter, collector and/or recycler system participant(s).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures.

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 an example method for generating an access element for monitoring the production of the plastics article or components thereof by at least one material participant of the decentral network. Fig. 3 illustrates another example method for generating an access element for monitoring the production of the plastics article or components thereof by at least one material participant of the decentral network.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a method for accessing data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof 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.

Fig. 5 illustrates a method for of obtaining data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof based on decentral product identifier(s) and relationships.

Fig. 6 illustrates relationship representations specifying relationships between plastic article or a component thereof and component(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of a decentral network including several decentral network nodes which may be accessed by a computing device.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example system for obtaining data related to the production based on a decentral plastic article identifier.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of a method or apparatus for providing material composition and/or article history data via a decentral network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following embodiments are mere examples for implementing the method, the apparatus, the system or applications disclosed herein and shall not be considered limiting.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a circular material loop 100 including mate-rial participants 101.1-6 connected through a decentral network 102 with decentral net-work nodes 103.1-6 associated with material participants 101.1 -6. 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 one or more material production chain(s), in which the material is produced by a material producer 101.1 and used to produce an end product by an original equipment manufacturer 101.3 (OEM). The linear material chain(s) may include a material recycling chain, in which the produced end product is collected, sorted and recycled up to a recycling system operator 101.6 and the recy- clate is used to produce new material by the material producer 101.1. 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 100.

The material chain network may include a material loop network 100 including the use of recycled mate- rial(s) to produce new materials. One or more material loop(s) 100 may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products 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 100, may include the production, use and/or recycling of physical materials or products produced by using such materials or 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 include the discrete component, the discrete component assembly, the end product, the end-of-life product, the product to be recycled, or the recycled 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 include or 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 100 illustrated in Fig. 1 may include multiple participants 101.1-6 forming the material loop 100. The material loop 100 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) 101.1 -6 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 100 may include the chemical product producer 103.1 , the chemical product user 103.2, the original equipment manufacturer, OEM 103.3, the end product user 103.4, the EOL product collector and/or sorter 103.5, the recycling system operator 103.6 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) 101.1 -6 of the material loop 100 may be connected through material flow(s) 104. The material flow 104 may correspond to the flow of product or material from one participant 101.1 -6 of the material loop to the downstream participant 101.1-6 of the material loop 100. The material flow 104 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 101.1-6 to another downstream participant 101.1-6. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages or the like. The material flow 104 may be a one-sided flow, such as a directional material flow 104. The material flow 104 may flow from the up-stream participant 101.1-6 to the downstream participant 101.1-6 of the material loop 100, such as the material flow 104 from the recycling system operator 101 .6 to the chemical product producer 101.1. The material flow may include reverse material flow 104 from the downstream participant 101.1-6 to the upstream participant 101.1-6 of the material loop 100. For example, material may flow 104 from the chemical product producer 101.1 to the recycling system 101.6, e.g. when the recycled product or recyclate does not adhere to quality specifications and needs further treatment.

The material flow 106 may be associated with raw 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. Instead of virgin raw material(s) the material flow 104 may include recycled material(s). Recycled material(s) may be made from waste material that can be recycled. The raw and recycled materials may be provided to the chemical product producer for producing materials), chemical product(s) and/or intermediate chemical product(s) (not shown).

The material loop 100 illustrated in Fig. 1 is based on the example of plastic materials and their circular loop. Plastic materials may include a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, poly-ethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl carbon, polyamide, polyurethane or the like. The mate-rial participants may include the monomer and/or polymer producer 101.1, the monomer and/or polymer user 101 .2 such as the compounder, moulder or converter, the original equipment manufacturer 101 .3 such as the polymer-containing product producer, the polymer-containing product user 101.4 such as the retailer or the consumer, the waste collector and/or sorter 101 .5, the recycling system operator 101.6.

The monomers and/or polymers may be produced by the chemical producer 101.1. The monomers and/or polymers may be provided to a polymer user 101 .2, such as a compounder, moulder and/or converter. The monomers and/or polymers may be compounded, moulded and/or converted. The compounded, moulded and/or converted polymer may be provided to a polymer-containing product producer 101 .3 (Original Equipment Manufacturer - OEM). The polymer-containing product or plastic article may be produced using the compounded, moulded and/or converted polymer. The polymer-containing product or plastic article may be provided to a polymer-containing product or plastic article user 101.4. The polymer-containing product or plastic article may be used by the user. At the end-of-life the polymer-containing product or plastic article may be disposed by the user. The disposed polymer-containing product or plastic article may be provided to the plastic waste collector and/or sorter 101.5. The plastic waste stream 108 may be provided to a collector 101 .5 for collecting polymer-containing products or plastic articles to be recycled. The disposed polymer-containing product or plastic article may be collected in a plastic waste stream 108. The plastic waste stream 108 may be provided to a sorter 101.5 for sorting fractions of polymer-containing products or plastic articles to be recycled. The plastic waste stream 108 may be sorted. The sorted fractions of polymer-containing products or plastic articles may be provided to a recycling system 101.6 for recycling the polymer- containing product or plastic article fraction. The recycled fraction may be provided to the chemical producer for producing new monomers and/or polymers thus closing the material loop 100. The material flow 104 may close the loop between the material participants. The material loop may include multiple production chains 110 including material supplier (not shown), chemical producer 101.1 , chemical user 101.2 and end product producer 101.3. The material loop may include multiple recycling chains 112 including end product collector 101.5 and/or sorter, recycling operator 101.6 and chemical producer 101.1.

In addition to the connection through material flows 104, the material participants 101.1 -6 of the circular material loop 100 may be connected through data flows 105 via the decentral network 102. The decentral network 102 may include one or more decentral network nodes 103.1-6 associated with material participants 101.1-6 of the material loop 100. In a decentralized or decentral network 102, the decentral network nodes 103.1-6, 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 102 may include decentral and central network nodes. The decentral network 102 may include central network nodes that may control and/or monitor the decentral network nodes 103.1-6. For example, central network node(s) may provide authentication information, which allow at least two decentral network nodes 103.1-6 to establish a peer-to-peer communication channel between respective decentral network nodes 103.1-6.

The network nodes 103.1-6 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 103.1 -6 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 Bluetooth. The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be configured to perform peer-to-peer data transactions, illustrated by the arrows 105 indicating data flow.

The decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be configured as data consuming and/or providing network nodes. The decentral network nodes 103.1 -6 may be configured to provide data to other network node(s) of the decentral network 102 and/or to consume data from other nodes of the decentral network 102. For instance, the decentral network node 103.1 ,3 associated with the monomer and/or polymer producer 101.1 or the polymer containing product or plastic article producer 101 .3 may be configured to provide data related to the production of the respective component to downstream participants such as the plastic waste collector or sorter 101 .5 or the recycling system operator 101 .6. Further for instance, the decentral network node 103.5,6 associated with the plastic waste collector or sorter 101 .5 or the recycling system operator 101.6 may be configured to access data from the network node 103.1-5 associated with upstream participants such as the monomer and/or polymer producer 101 .1 or the polymer containing product producer 101.3.

The decentral network node(s) 103.1 -6 may comprise computer-executable instructions configured to provide, consume and/or process data, such as data related to production of associated monomer, polymer, polymer-containing product or plastic article produced or processed within the circular loop 100. The network node(s) may run a data providing service configured to provide data to another decentral network node 103.1-6 of the decentral network 102. The decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 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 100. The decentral network node(s) 103.1-6 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 100 (see for example Fig. 9). 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 100. The data owner may be the respective participant 101.1-6 of the circular loop 100, the data generating node 103.1-6 is associated with. The data generating node 103.1-6 may have access to the dedicated data storage(s). Access to data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 100 may hence be under control of the data owner the respective decentral network node 103.1 -6 is associated with. This allows to retain full control over data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 100 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 100 under controlled conditions, for ex-ample by using appropriate protocols including authorization and authentication mechanisms or schemes to establish peer-to-peer communication.

The decentral network node 103.1 -6 configured to consume data may comprise computer-executable instructions for accessing and/or processing data within the decentral network 102, such as data associated with material produced or processed within the circular loop 100 and provided by a decentral data providing network node 103.1-6. The decentral data consuming network node 103.1-6 may be controlled or owned by or associated with any upstream or downstream participant of the circular loop 100. For instance, the decentral data consuming network node 103.4 may be associated with polymer-containing product or plastic article user 103.4 to allow access to monomer and/or polymer data associated with the supplied monomer and/or polymer of the monomer through the decentral data providing network node 103.1 associated with the monomer and/or polymer producer 101.1. The decentral network 102 may include further decentral network nodes 103.1-6. The further decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may not be associated with further participants of the circular loop 100. 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 103.1-6, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 103.1-6 prior to performing a data ex-change. The decentral network participant node(s) 103.1 -6 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certifi- cate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with an identity manager 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) 103.1-6 may be associated or connected to a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network node(s) 103.1-6. 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 performing a data exchange (not shown).

The material or product produced by participant(s) 101.1-6 of the circular loop 100 may be associated with material or product data associated with properties of the material or product produced by participant(s)

101.1-6 of the circular loop 100. The material or product data may be provided for access by the decentral data providing network node 103.1 -6 associated with the material or product producer. Access to the material or product data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node 103.1-6. The material or product data may be accessed by decentral data consuming network node(s) 103.1 -6 associated with further participants 101.1 -6 of the material loop 100, such as any upstream or downstream participant

101.1-6.

The data flow 105 between decentral network nodes 103.1-6 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 104, 106 between the participants 101.1-6 of the mate-rial loop 100. For instance, the data flow 105 may be directly associated with the material flow 104, 105, if data associated with a chemical product provided from the chemical product producer 103.1 to the chemical product user 103.2 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 103.1-6 associated with said chemical product user 101.2. For instance, the data flow 105 may be indirectly associated with the material flow 104, 106, if data associated with a chemical product produced by chemical product producer 103.1 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 103.1 -6 associated with the recycling system operator 101.6. Data transactions between decentral network nodes 103.1-6 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 de-central 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 102. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifiers), 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 a material access element associated with the material or product as is described in more detail in the context of Figs. 2-9.

In particular, the generation of access elements associated with data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof 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 plastic article or the component thereof will be described in more detail by way of examples in the following Figs. 2-9.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example method for generating an access element for monitoring the production of the plastics article or components thereof by at least one material participant of the decentral network.

Data related to the production, of the plastic article or the component thereof may be collected. The data may be collected prior to, during and/or after production of the plastic article 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 such as monomer, polymer, component produced by using the monomer or polymer, plastic article produced by using the monomer, polymer or the component. The plastic article may refer to the end product of the production chain. The component may refer to any stage in the production chain. The production chain may include stages such as raw material or recyclate to produce the monomer and/or polymer, intermediate material or component from compounding, moulding and/or converting, discrete component or discrete component assembly for producing the plastic article and/or the production of the plastic article.

The data may be generated in association with one or more network nodes 103.1-4, e.g. in relation to data generating node(s), associated with the respective producer 101.1-4. The data may relate to different stages of the production chain of the plastic article. The data may relate to the production of the monomer, the polymer, the use of the polymer and/or monomer in production of the component, any non-discrete or discrete component of the plastic article produced by using the produced monomer or polymer, or the plastic article produced by using the produced monomer or polymer. The data may be specific to the produced monomer, the produced polymer, any produced non-discrete or discrete component of the plastic article produced by using the produced monomer or polymer, or the produced plastic article produced by using the produced monomer, polymer or any non-discrete or discrete component. The data may be specific to individual entities or batches of the produced monomer, the produced polymer, any produced non- discrete or discrete component of the plastic article produced by using the produced monomer or polymer, or the produced plastic article produced by using the produced monomer or any non-discrete or discrete component.

The data related to the production of the plastic article or any component thereof may include material composition data and/or article history data. The material composition data may relate to or specify the material composition of the plastic article or any component thereof. For example, the material composition data may relate to or specify 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. For example, in the case of pyrolysis oil produced to be used in a steam cracker critical constituents can impede steam cracker operations. The constituents may include contaminants in relation to pyrolysis oil for use in stream crackers. 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 presence of these contaminants in pyrolysis oil can have adverse effect on steam cracker operation.

The material composition data may further relate to degradation level of material used to produce the article or component thereof, recyclate content used to produce the article or component thereof, monomer content used to produce the article or component thereof and/or polymer content used to produce the article or component thereof. Such data may be accessed by participants of the recycling chain, such as sorters, collectors and/or recyclers, prior, on and/or after processing, such as sorting, collecting and/or recycling, to determine content of articles with certain degradation level (s), recyclate content, monomer content and/or polymer content. This way the waste fractions on sorting or the waste fractions after sorting may be monitored reliably.

The article 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 plastic article or any component thereof. For example, the origin may relate to a location, a region and/or a producer of the plastic article or any component thereof. The origin may refer to the location, the region and/or the producer of the monomer, the polymer and/or the processed polymer such as a compounded, moulded or converted polymer. For example, the use may relate to a use of the plastic article or any component thereof. The use may refer to a specific area of use for the plastic article or any component thereof such as food packaging, non-food packaging, car parts, furniture parts, electronics parts, battery parts or the like. For example, the application may relate to any application of the plastic article or any component thereof. The application may refer to a specific application of the plastic article or any component thereof such as bottle, cap for bottle, foil, fibre, mattress, crates or the like.

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 may include decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. The data may relate to one or more production input(s) used to produce the respective entity in the plastic article production chain. Collecting data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include gathering decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article 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 input(s).

The data may include property data. The property data may relate to or include a property of the plastic article 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 plastic article 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 recy- clate to plastic article may be tracked in the material production chain. The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the respective production participant of the production chain producing the plastic article or component thereof. The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include different data sets related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. Such data sets may refer to the data sets described above such as material composition data, article history data, property data, emission data, recyclate content data, bio-based content data.

One or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or the component thereof may be provided. The one or more decentral identifier(s) may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the produced plastic article 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 article or component thereof, the production participant(s) of the production chain producing the entity and/or the data related to the production of the plastic article 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 identifiers) and the unique association with the plastic article or component thereof, 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.

The decentral identifier(s) may include one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for data exchange or peer-to-peer communication via the decentral network. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral identifier for participant nodes of the decentral network, authentication of participant nodes of the decentral network and/or authorization of data transfers via the peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentral network. The decentral identifier(s) may be as-sociated with any participant of the production chain and the respective entity produced by such participant.

One or more digital representation (s) of the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be generated. The digital representation may be generated per data set included in the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital representation(s) may point to the collected data or parts thereof. The digital representation(s) may relate to the dedicated storage associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the plastic article or component thereof and storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital representation(s) may include a locator or pointer locating or pointing to the dedicated storage associated with the production participant of the production chain producing the plastic article or component thereof and storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof.

The digital representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to data related to the production of the plastic article or component thereof. 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 plastic article or component thereof and storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital representation may comprise at least one interface to a data providing network node or a data providing service. The digital representation may include at least one interface to a data consuming network node or a data consuming service. It 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 digital representation(s) pointing to the collected data or parts thereof may be uniquely associated with the decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may be connected to the digital representation of the collected data or parts thereof.

An access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation^) may be generated. The access element may include or be associated with the digital representation^) of the collected data or parts thereof related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The access element may be associated with the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital representation of the collected data or parts thereof may be provided to the data consuming network node or the data consuming service. The digital representation(s) of the collected data or parts thereof may be provided by a decentral network database, a database associated with the data consuming network node, the data providing network node associated with the producer of the respective entity or combinations thereof. The digital representation may include the locator or pointer for accessing the collected data or parts thereof. The access element may include or be associated with the digital representation of the collected data or parts thereof related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, and the decentral identifier. The access element may include or be associated with the digital representation of the collected data or parts thereof related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, the decentral identifier and authentication information.

The access element may include one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s) and the digital article representation(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s), such as decentral producer identifier(s), decentral plastic article identifier(s), decentral component identifier(s), decentral polymer identifier(s) or decentral monomer 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 digital representation(s). 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.

The access element may be provided for access to the data related to the production of the plastic article 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. The access element may be provided to a decentral registry node, for example as described further below. Decentral registry node may store decentral access element(s).

Fig. 3 illustrates another example method for generating an access element for monitoring the production of the plastics article or components thereof by at least one material participant of the decentral network.

Data may be collected as described in the context of Figs. 1 or 2. Collecting data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include gathering decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article 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 input(s).

One or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or any component thereof may be provided and one or more digital representation(s) of the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may be generated as for example described in the context of Fig. 1 . The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof may include at least one data set relating to or including the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. Based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof and decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or a component thereof a digital relationship may be generated. For example, the decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or a component thereof may be a parent identifier(s) and the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof may be the child identifiers). Generating the digital representation may include generating a relationship representation based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. The relationship representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to data related to relationship between input and plastic article or component thereof. A decentral relationship identifier associated with the digital relationship may provided. The providing may include providing the relationship representation.

The access element including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the digital representation (s) may be generated and provided as described in the context of Fig. 1 . In addition, a relationship access element including the decentral relationship identifier associated with the digital relationship and the relationship representation may be generated. The relationship access element may include the decentral relationship identifier and the relationship representation. Access elements may be provided to one or more access element management node(s) configured to provide access elements or parts thereof on request of data consuming network nodes.

The relationship access element may be provided for access to the digital relationship between the plastic article or the component thereof and the production input(s) 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. The relationship access element may be provided to a decentral registry node, for example as described further below. Decentral registry node may store access element(s) associated with the plastic article and relationship access element(s).

By way of the relationship access elements per stage of the production chain, the material flow may be recursively accessed for monitoring material flow by accessing respective data packages. The material composition data may include one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling to recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant type for the decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data or type of participant associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the data. Such substances critical for recycling may be provided on production of the plastic article or component thereof and may be accessed recursively in a targeted manner, e.g. depending on decentral participant ID, recyclate type and/or recycling process ID. Such recursive access may be provided to specific participants of the material recycling chain to protect sensitive recipe data or bill of material data of producers. The recursive access via relationship IDs and representations is described in more detail below.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a method for accessing data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof 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. The data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, such as material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, may be accessed by a decentral data consuming network node in communication with the decentral network node receiving an indication to gather data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof. The access may be requested at a decentral data providing network node being associated with a storage environment storing the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, as described in the context of Figs. 2 and 3.

The decentral data providing network node may receive an indication to access the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, associated with a determined decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may be determined as described for example in more detail below in the context of Figs. 5-8 based on the relationship representation.

Before access may be provided to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, the request may be authenticated. In particular, the decentral network node requesting to access the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof and/or the decentral data providing network node providing access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof 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). The decentral network node requesting to access the data may be associated with any participant of the recycling chain such as collector, sorter, recycler or any combination thereof. The decentral data providing network node providing access to the data may be associated with any participant of the production chain such as monomer producer, polymer producer, monomer user, polymer user or plastic article producer.

If the authentication fails, access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, may be denied. If the authentication is valid, an authorization step may follow. Such authorization may be based on the decentral identifier associated with the decentral network nodes and the authorization rules associated with the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof. Authorization rules may be associated with access to and/or usage of the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof. Authorization rules may include access rules associated with decentral identifier(s) of the decentral network nodes controlling access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof.

If the authorization fails, access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, may be denied or access may be adapted. In particular, the authorization as requested may be adapted to be in line with the applicable authorization rules. If the authorization is valid, access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, may be granted according to the authorization rules as requested. The provided data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, may be stored in a storage environment associated with the decentral network node requesting access to the data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof.

Fig. 5 illustrates a method for of obtaining data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof based on decentral product identifier(s) and relationships. The method may be implemented in a decentral network, for example as described in the context of Figs. 1 to 4.

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 . 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 , 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 plastic article or the component thereof, 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. 8. 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 plastic article or the component thereof 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 data related to relationship representation(s) based on the decentral identifier(s) associated with the plastic article, one or more component(s) of the plastic article or combinations thereof provided for the decentral registry node. The decentral registry node may store decentral identifier(s) associated with data related to respective relationship representations as for example described in the context of Fig. 3. Relationship representations are, for example, illustrated in Fig. 7.

The decentral network node requesting access may access said decentral registry using the decentral identifier(s) associated with the plastic article or the component thereof to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral identifier(s). Data related to the relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a relationship representation pointing to the respective digital relationship. The relationship representation pointing to the digital relationship may comprise at least one interface to a decentral data providing network node associated with said digital relationship. It may further include at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said digital relationship. 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 relationship representation(s) pointing to the digital relationship may hence be uniquely associated with the decentral relationship identifier and the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article or the component thereof. The relationship representation pointing to the digital relationship may be regarded as locator indicating the location or dedicated data storage(s) where the respective digital relationship is stored.

The digital relationship(s) may specify relationship(s) between the plastic article and components thereof and production inputs, such as input components, used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital relationship may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article or component thereof. This allows to determine the respective digital relation- ship(s) using the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article or component thereof. The digital relationship^) may specify that the production input, such as input components, was used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof and/or that the plastic article or the component thereof was produced using the components. The digital relationship may be associated with a relationship between the plastic article or the component thereof and each production input, such as material, used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof, for example using the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article and component identifier(s) associated with all production inputs, such as input components, used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. Hence, such relationship may also specify raw materials and intermediate products used in the production of the plastic article or the component thereof. The digital relationship may be associated with the relationship between input material(s) and output materials) 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 digital relationships which may be used to determine the decentral component identifier(s) are, for example, illustrated in Fig. 7. Determining decentral identifier(s) associated with the plastic article or components thereof using the digital relationship may allow to construct a bill of material tree structure for the plastic article or components thereof.

The decentral network node requesting access to data may be configured to access relationship(s) based on the data related to the digital relationship(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 digital relationship(s) and data related to the production of the plastic article or the component thereof, such as material composition data. The digital relationship(s) may be accessed from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with a storage environment storing the respective relationship. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the owner of the data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with any participant of the production chain, such as the plastic article producer or the component producer. The digital relationship may include the decentral plastic article identifier and one or more decentral component identifier(s) associated with production input(s), such as materials, used to produce the plastic article (denoted as child identifier(s) hereinafter). Decentral child identifier(s) associated with the decentral plastic article identifier may be determined based on the obtained digital relationship(s). The decentral plastic article identifier may be regarded as decentral parent identifier. The decentral child identifier(s) may correspond to component identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof. The relationship may contain one or more decentral child identifier(s). The relationship may include the decentral plastic article identifier. This allows to link the decentral plastic article 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 relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof, data may be obtained. If the child identifier(s) are not associated with material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article 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 relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof. The material composition data may include one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling to recycling process, recyclate use and/or participant type for the decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data or type of participant associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the 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 relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof 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 may be obtained based on the determined decentral child identifier(s). The data related to production, such as the material composition data may be obtained from decentral data providing network nodes associated with said data related to production. 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 a digital representation pointing to the data related to production or parts thereof. Said digital representation may correspond to an endpoint address associated with a respective decentral data providing network node. The digital representation may be stored on the decentral registry node and may be determined using the decentral child identifier(s) determined before. The digital representation may be used to access the data related to production at the decentral data providing network node associated with said digital representation. 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 respective article or component thereof. 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 relationship representation(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.

Data related to relationship representation(s) associated with determined decentral child identifier(s) may be obtained from the decentral registry network node as described above. The relationship representa- tion(s) may be used to access associated digital relationship(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 (see for example Fig. 6) are reached. Recursively determining decentral child identifier(s) associated with a decentral component identifier allows to obtain the complete bill of material tree structure associated with a plastic article or component thereof, e.g. allows to determine the relationships between materials used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof.

In the last step, the data related to the production, such as material 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. 6 illustrates relationship representations specifying relationships between plastic article or a part thereof and materials used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof.

The digital twin (DT) of the plastic article may include a relationship containing the decentral digital twin identifier ID5 and a decentral identifier ID4 associated with the moulded component used to produce the plastic article. The relationship may be associated with data related to the relationship. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation (e.g. associated with a storage environment storing said relationship representation) as described in the context of Fig. 5. The data related to the relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to said relationship. The data related to the relationship may be associated with data related to the digital twin. Data related to the digital twin may include the decentral digital twin identifier and digital representation pointing to the digital twin or parts thereof. Data related to the digital twin may further include decentral identifier(s) associated with data set(s) contained in the digital twin and respective digital representations pointing to said data set(s) or parts thereof. One such data set may correspond to the relationship representation 1628, e.g. the decentral identifier may correspond to the decentral relationship representation identifier mentioned previously.

Similarly, the digital twin (DT) of the moulded component may include a relationship containing the decentral digital twin identifier ID4 and a decentral identifier ID3 associated with the polymer used to produce the moulded component. The digital twin (DT) of the polymer may include a relationship containing the decentral digital twin identifier ID3 and a decentral identifier ID2 associated with the monomer used to produce the polymer. Lastly the monomer may include a relationship to the raw component id 1 used to produce the monomer.

Based on the relationships shown in Fig. 6 part of a bill of material tree may be obtained from the relationship representations as described above. The bill of material tree may include the plastic article as end product at the top level down to the raw material as input material to produce the monomer on the bottom level. To not expose the full bill of material to one participant, the material composition data including one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for recycling per recycling process, per recyclate use and/or per decentral participant identifier may be accessed in a controlled manner based on the recycling process, recyclate use and/or decentral participant identifier as described in the context of Figs. 3 and 5.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of a decentral network including several decentral network nodes which may be accessed by a computing device. The computing device may be a mobile computing device, such as a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet or the like. The computing device may be a stationary computing device, such as a desktop computer or the like. The computing device may comprise a screen configured to display information provided by the decentral network. For instance, the screen may display a graphical user interface displaying the data received via the decentral network.

The decentral network may be a decentral peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral network may include decentral network nodes associated with participants of the plastic article ecosystem and may be configured to perform data transactions. The plastic article ecosystem may include the plastic article production chain. The plastic article ecosystem may include the plastic article recycling chain. The network nodes associated with participants of the plastic article ecosystem may be associated with raw chemical product suppliers, intermediate chemical products manufacturers, intermediate part manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, end product manufacturers and participants of the recycling chain as described for example in the context of Fig. 1 . The plastic article production may include supply chains for producing the materials used to produce plastic articles. 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 communication between decentral participant network nodes associated with participants of the plastic article ecosystem may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s), such as decentral plastic article identifier(s), decentral component identifier(s) and/or decentral mono- mer/polymer identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifiers) may be accessible by the decentral participant network node(s).

Decentral network nodes associated with participants of the plastic article ecosystem may include decentral data providing network nodes. Decentral data providing network nodes may be configured to provide data, such as material composition data, upon a request to access this data. The data may be provided upon successful authentication and authorization, for example as described in the context of Fig. 4. The decentral data providing network nodes may be associated with a data owner of the material composition data, for example as described in the context of Figs. 2 to 6. Such decentral network nodes associated with participants of the plastic article ecosystem may include decentral data consuming network nodes, such as decentral network node. Decentral data consuming network nodes may be configured to request access to data, such as product data or material data, at respective decentral data providing network node(s). Decentral data consuming network nodes may be configured to access data pointing to the material composition data, such as the decentral plastic article identifier/decentral component identifier/decentral monomer/poly- mer identifier and associated digital representations pointing to the material composition data, from decentral registry node. Decentral registry node may be configured to store decentral identifiers associated with respective digital representations pointing to data or part thereof. Access to said data allows decentral data consuming network nodes to determine the decentral data providing network node associated with the data to be obtained. For instance, decentral data consuming network node(s) may access decentral registry node with the decentral plastic article identifier associated with the plastic article or component thereof or the decentral component identifier associated with the component of the plastic article and may retrieve respective digital representations pointing to the material composition data.

The decentral network nodes may include decentral infrastructure nodes. Such infrastructure nodes may not be associated with participants of the product ecosystem. Such infrastructure nodes may provide services to participants of the product ecosystem. For instance, such infrastructure nodes may be configured to provide authentication services for decentral network nodes, such as decentral 1AM network nodes. Decentral 1AM network nodes may be configured to provide identity and access management services for decentral network nodes and/or for computing devices requesting data from the decentral network. For instance, decentral 1AM network node(s) may be configured to generate access tokens to authorized decentral network node(s) and/or computing devices and to provide such access tokens to the decentral network node or computing device requesting said tokens. Such access tokens may be used during authentication processes. In another instance, such infrastructure nodes may be configured to gather data upon receiving a request from a computing device, such as computing device (e.g. decentral network node). In yet another instance, such infrastructure nodes may serve as a repository storing data available to one or more decentral network nodes, such as decentral registry node.

The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example system for obtaining data related to the production based on a decentral plastic article identifier as described for example in the context of Figs. 4-7.

The plastic article or component thereof may be associated with a digital twin. The digital twin of the plastic article or component thereof may include the decentral plastic article identifier and data related to production, such as material composition data. Data related to production may include the data structure described for example in the context of Fig. 2. The digital twin of the component may include the decentral component identifier and data related to production, such as material composition data. The data related to production may include material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof. A digital access element may be generated prior, upon or after production of the plastic article or component thereof. The digital access element may be associated with the respective digital twin or a part thereof. The digital access element may contain a decentral access element identifier and access data.

The decentral access element identifier may correspond to or be associated with the decentral article identifier or the decentral component identifier. The access data may include digital representation(s) pointing to the respective digital twin or a part thereof. The access data may include or relate to relationship representation^) pointing to the respective digital relationship(s) or a part thereof. Examples of digital access element generation are illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, 6 or 7. The digital access element may further include or relate to authentication and/or authorization information linked to the decentral access element identifier. The authentication and/or authorization information may be provided for authentication and/or authorization of the decentral network node, decentral data consuming network nodes and/or decentral data providing network nodes. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry node, for example as described in the context of Figs. 2 and 3. Decentral registry node may store decentral access element identifiers) and associated access data.

The plastic article or the component thereof may be provided in association with the digital access element to a company performing at least one recycling step of a recycling process, such as sorting, collecting, mechanical or chemical recycling as for example described in the context of Fig. 1 . The company may perform the recycling step to produce recyclate from plastic waste streams. The plastic article or component thereof may be connected to an identifier element, such as a bar code or QR-code, having encoded the decentral access element identifier. The recycling company receiving the plastic article or component thereof may read the code through a code reader. The code reader 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 access element identifier (denoted hereinafter as DID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral article identifier or decentral component identifier (hereinafter denoted as UUID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the plastic article/component identifier(s). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the access data. The decentral access element identifier, decentral plastic article identifier or decentral component 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 plastic article identifier or decentral component identifier and the access data, for example using a DID resolver. In another instance, the plastic article identifier/component identifier is determined by code reader and used to retrieve the decentral access element identifier and associated access data, for example from decentral registry node. 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 may be configured to perform an authentication step with decentral registry node. For instance, code reader may access a decentral 1AM network node and decentral 1AM network node may be configured to provide an access token to code reader upon successful authentication. This access token may be used by code reader to access decentral registry node. Code reader may provide a decentral participant identifier associated with a participant of the plastic article ecosystem to decentral 1AM network node for authentication.

Code reader may be configured to provide the decentral plastic article identifier/decentral component identifier (e.g. UUID1) to decentral network node. Code reader 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.

Decentral network node may be configured to verify the authentication data received from computing device with decentral IAM network node. Upon successful authentication, decentral network node may be configured to access decentral registry node using decentral product identifier/decentral recycled component identifier received from computing device and to retrieve data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral plastic article identifier/decentral component identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a relationship representation pointing to the respective digital relationship. The relationship representation pointing to the digital relationship may point to the decentral data providing network node associated with the respective digital relationship. For instance, the data related to the relationship representation associated with the plastic article may comprise a relationship representation pointing to decentral data providing network node(s) associated with material composition data of the components or production inputs used to produce the plastics article. In another instance, the data related to the relationship representation associated with the component may comprise a relationship representation pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with the material composition data of the component or production input(s) used to produce the component. Decentral network node or a decentral data consuming network node associated with any producer of the article production chain may be configured to access respective decentral data providing network node(s) associated with the relationship representation(s) and to request relationship representation^) associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier(s) from said decentral data providing network node(s), for example as illustrated in Fig. 7. Examples of relationship representations are illustrated in Fig. 6. Decentral network node may be configured to determine decentral component identifiers) contained in said relationship representation(s), for example as described in the context of Fig. 5. Decentral network node may be configured to access decentral registry node using the determined decentral child identifier(s) to determine access data associated with said decentral child identifier(s). Decentral network node may be configured to access material composition data using the decentral article/compo- nent identifier, the access data and optionally the decentral participant identifier provided by computing device from respective decentral data providing network node(s). Decentral network node may be configured to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the determined decentral arti- cle/component identifiers as described previously.

In this example, decentral network node may receive a decentral article identifier associated with the plastic article from computing device. The decentral network node may access decentral registry node using said decentral article identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral article identifier.

The determined data related to relationship representation(s) may contain a relationship representation pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with digital relationship. The digital relationship may be stored on a storage environment associated with the decentral data providing network node. The digital relationship may include a relationship indicating decentral component identifier(s) associated with component(s) used to produce the plastic article, such as the polymer, monomer, etc. Decentral network node or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node may be configured to access the digital relationship from the decentral data providing network node. Decentral network node or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node may be configured to access material composition data from the decentral data providing network node. Access to the material composition data may be authorized based on the decentral participant identifier provided by computing device. Access to the material composition data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node associated with said material composition data. This ensures that material composition data can only be accessed by authorized participants of the plastic article ecosystem, hence avoiding uncontrolled access to the material composition data.

Decentral network node may be configured to retrieve decentral component identifier(s) associated with component(s) used to produce the plastic article, such as the moulded polymer, compounded polymer, etc. from the accessed digital relationship. Decentral network node may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral component identifier(s) from decentral registry node using the determined decentral component identifier(s). Decentral network node or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access digital relationship(s), for example from decentral data providing network node associated with material composition data. The material composition data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 1) associated with the decentral data providing network node. DT storage may be associated with or under control of the component producer. Decentral network node or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access material composition data as described previously. The material composition data set(s) may relate to or specify substances critical for recycling the plastic article or the component thereof by a mechanical and/or chemical recycling process.

Decentral network node may be configured to retrieve decentral component identifier(s) associated with polymer(s) or monomer(s) used to produce the component, from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral component identifier(s) from decentral registry node using the determined decentral component identifier(s). Decentral network node or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access digital relationship(s), for example from decentral data providing network node associated with material composition data. The material composition data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage) associated with the decentral data providing network node. DT storage may be associated with or under control of the polymer or monomer producer. Decentral network node or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access material composition data as described previously. The material composition data set(s) may relate to or specify substances critical for recycling the plastic article or the component thereof by a mechanical and/or chemical recycling process.

The same procedure may be performed per component of the plastic article used to produce the plastic article. Hence, decentral network node may be configured to determine, based on the accessed digital relationship (s) and the linking between decentral identifier(s) of starting components and resulting compo- nents/plastic article, a bill of material tree associated with the plastic article or the component thereof. The bill of material tree may represent relationships between all components used to produce the plastic article or component thereof. Recursive determination of decentral component identifier(s) using digital relation- ship(s) hence allows to obtain a material composition data of components(s) used to produce the plastic article or component thereof and indicating substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or component thereof.

The material composition data gathered by decentral network node may be provided to computing device. Computing device may display the gathered material composition data, for example within a graphical user interface.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of a method or apparatus for providing material composition and/or article history data via a decentral network 102. The waste article 900 as provided by the article user or producer may be provided in association with the access element as described for example in the context of Figs. 1 , 2 or 3 and 4-8. The access element may relate to an article identifier. The article identifier may include one or more decentral identifier(s). The decentral identifier may be the identifier in the decentral network 102 allowing for data exchange via the decentral network 102. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral identifier for decentral network node(s) 103 associated with participant(s) 101 of the decentral network 102, authentication of decentral network node(s) 103 associated with participant(s) 101 of the decentral network 102 and/or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between decentral network node(s) 103 associated with participant(s) 101 of the decentral network 102.

The access element may include or be related to data related to the article such as article property data associated with the article properties like composition and/or article history data. The access element may include a digital representation of the article data associated with the article 900. The access element may further include or relate to authentication and/or authorization information linked to the article identifier. The authentication and/or authorization information may be provided for authentication and/or authorization of a data providing service and/or data consuming service implemented by decentral network node(s) 103.5, 103.3. The article identifier may include or relate to a decentral identifier, that is uniquely associated with the article. The decentral identifier may be connected to the digital representation of the of the article data associated with the article 904. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the article data or parts thereof. The decentral identifier may include a Universally Unique I Dentifier (UUID) or a Digital I Dentifier (DID). The decentral identifier may include any unique identifier uniquely associated with a data owner and/or article.

The data owner may be the producer of the article. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the data owner and/or article access to the article data may be controlled by the data owner such as described in the context of Figs. 4-8.

The access element including the digital representation of article data may be stored in a decentral data base or registry node 910. The article data may be stored in a data base 902 associated with the data owner, such as the producer of the article 900.

The article 904 may be physically delivered to the user using the article and disposing the article. The article 900 may be physically collected and/or sorted by the article collector and/or sorter. The article may be connected with a QR-code having encoded the article identifier. The user, collector or sorter of the article 904 may read the QR-code through a QR-code reader 906. The article identifier may be provided to a data base 910 associated with the producer producing the article 900. In other embodiments the producer producing the article 900 may retrieve the article identifier through the decentral data base 910.

The data owner in this example may be the article producer, any intermediate product producer producing an intermediate product for the article or any producer producing a product based on the article. The data owner may comprise any entity generating data.

The data generating node may be coupled to the data owner or the entity owning or producing physical products from or for which data is generated. The data may be generated by a third-party entity on behalf of the entity owning physical articles from or for which data is generated.

The data consuming service implemented by node 103.5 may comprise computer-executable instructions for accessing and/or processing data, such as article data, associated with the data owner. The data providing service implemented by node 103.3 may comprise computer-executable instructions for providing and/or processing data, such as article data, associated with the data owner for accessing and/or processing by the data consuming service implementing node 103.5.

Based on the received article identifier a request to access the article data related to the article identifier may be triggered by the data consuming service implemented by node 103.5 as signified by arrow 912. The article identifier may be provided to the data providing service implemented by node 103.3 associated with or of the producer of the article 900. In addition, authentication and/or authorization information may be provided.

The request may be authenticated and/or authorized to access the article data related to the article identifier. Based on successful authorization and/or authentication access to the article data related to the article identifier may be granted.

For access the article identifier may be provided to the data providing service implemented by node 103.3 as signified by arrow 912. The data providing service implemented by node 103.3 may use the received article identifier to retrieve the article data associated with the article 900 from a dedicated storage 902 as signified by arrows 918 and 920. The article data associated with the article 904 provided to the data providing service implemented by node 103.5 may be provided to the data consuming service implemented by node 103.5 as signified by arrow 916. The article data associated with the article 904 may be stored in the dedicated storage or data base 908 associated with the user, collector or sorter of the article 904 as signified by arrow 922. Through the article identifier or decentral identifier, the article data can be uniquely associated with the article 900, 904. Through the decentral network the article data may be transferred between the producer of the article and the user, collector or sorter of the article. This way the article data can be shared with unique association to the article and without central intermediary directly between the players of the decentral network 102. This allows for controlled transparency of article data across the material loop 100.

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” 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.

Any disclosure and embodiments described herein relate to methods, systems, apparatuses, devices, chemicals, materials, computer program elements lined out above and vice versa. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples and vice versa.

All terms and definitions used herein are understood broadly and have their general meaning.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1 . A method for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a plastic article or a component thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

- collecting material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or the component thereof, in relation to production of the plastic article or the component thereof;

- providing one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or the component thereof;

- generating one or more digital representation(s) of the material composition data;

- generating one or more access element(s) including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation (s);

- providing the one or more 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 plastic article or the component thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling is collected in association with the production of the plastic article or the component thereof by the producer of the plastic article or the component thereof.

3. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof is collected.

4. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof, in particular the related one or more decentral identifier(s) of the one or more production input(s), are collected.

5. The method of any of claims 3 or 4, wherein a digital relationship based on the one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the plastic article or the component thereof is generated.

6. The method of any of claims 3-5, wherein a decentral relationship identifier associated with the digital relationship is provided, wherein a relationship representation of the digital relationship is generated, wherein a relationship access element including the decentral relationship identifier and the relationship representation is generated, wherein the relationship access element is provided for access to the digital relationship 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.

7. The method of any of any of claims 3-6, wherein the relationship access element is provided for access to the digital relationship between production input(s) and the plastic article or the component thereof as used in the production process of the producer providing access through the data providing node associated with said producer.

8. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the material composition data specifies substances critical for recycling the plastic article or the component thereof by a chemical recycling process.

9. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the material composition data includes one or more data set(s) relating to substances critical for one or more recycling process(es), recyclate use(s) and/or type(s) of participant(s) associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the material composition data.

10. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to material composition data set(s) depending on one or more recycling pro- cess(s), recyclate use(s) and/or participant type(s), wherein the access element is provided for access to material composition data set(s) that include substances critical for recycling depending on one or more recycling process(s), recyclate use(s) and/or participant type(s) by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more participant(s) of a recycling chain executing one or more process(es) for recycling.

11 . An apparatus for monitoring one or more substance(s) critical for recycling of a plastic article or a component thereof, the apparatus comprising:

- a data collection interface configured to collect material composition data relating to substances critical for recycling of the plastics article or the component thereof, in relation to production of the plastic article or the component thereof;

- an identifier providing interface configured to provide one or more decentral identifier(s) associated with the produced plastic article or the component thereof;

- a representation generator configured to generate one or more digital representation(s) of the material composition data;

- an access element generator configured to generate one or more access element(s) including the one or more decentral identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s); - a decentral network interface configured to provide the one or more access element(s) to a decentral network for access to 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 plastic article or the component thereof.

12. A method for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a plastic article to be recycled, the method comprising the steps:

- providing at least one decentral identifier associated with the plastic article to be recycled;

- gathering based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods of any of claims 1 -10 or by the apparatuses of claim 11 one or more representation(s) related to the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article to be recycled;

- requesting access to material composition data, from a producer of the plastic article and/or one or more producer(s) of component(s) of the plastic article to be recycled.

13. An apparatus for accessing one or more substance(s) critical of a plastic article to be recycled, the apparatus comprising:

- an identifier providing interface configured to provide at least one decentral identifier associated with the plastic article to be recycled;

- a representation retriever configured to gather based on one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods of any of claims 1 -10 or by the apparatuses of claim 11 one or more representation(s) related to the decentral identifier associated with the plastic article to be recycled;

- an access requestor configured to request access to material composition data from a producer of the plastic article and/or one or more producer(s) of component(s) of the plastic article to be recycled.

14. A decentral network node configured to provide one or more access element(s) according to the methods of any of claims 1 -10 or by the apparatus of claim 11 ; or a decentral network node configured to access material composition data according to the method of claim 12 or by the apparatus of claim 13.

15. A plastic article associated with one or more access element(s) generated and provided according to the methods of any of claims 1 -10 or by the apparatuses of claim 11 .