Digital Product Passport: What It Is and How It's Changing Supply Chains

When you buy a pair of sneakers or a laptop, you rarely think about where every part came from—or what happens to it after you throw it away. That’s changing with the digital product passport, a digital record that tracks a product’s entire lifecycle, from raw materials and manufacturing to ownership and recycling. Also known as digital product ID, it’s becoming mandatory in the EU and is starting to show up in global supply chains. Think of it like a birth certificate for your toaster, but instead of just names and dates, it holds data on materials, carbon footprint, repair history, and how to recycle it properly.

This isn’t science fiction. The European Union Digital Product Passport, a regulatory framework under the EUDR and Circular Economy Action Plan that requires certain products to carry verifiable digital records is forcing brands in fashion, electronics, and batteries to start building these systems. Companies like Apple and H&M are already testing them. Behind the scenes, this relies on blockchain for supply chain, a tamper-proof ledger that lets multiple parties—manufacturers, retailers, recyclers—share and verify product data without trusting each other. It’s not just about transparency; it’s about accountability. If a battery is labeled as "sustainable," the passport proves it with real data, not just marketing claims.

And it’s not just for big brands. Smaller companies are using digital product passports to cut costs and avoid fines. If your product can’t prove it meets environmental rules, it gets blocked at the border. Meanwhile, consumers are starting to scan QR codes before they buy, checking if a shirt was made with fair labor or if a phone’s parts are truly recyclable. The circular economy, a system where products are designed to last, be repaired, and reused instead of thrown away depends on this data. Without knowing what’s inside a product, you can’t recycle it right. And without recycling right, we’re stuck in a wasteful loop.

What you’ll find below are real-world examples of how this tech is being used—some successfully, some still struggling. You’ll see how crypto exchanges are using similar tracking methods to block fraud, how enterprise blockchains are securing medical records, and how token standards are evolving to support ownership in new ways. This isn’t just about compliance. It’s about building trust in a world where everything you own leaves a trace—and now, that trace is digital.