CircThread | Building the Digital Thread for Circular Economy Product, Resource & Service Management

The CircThread project has carried out several standardization activities including a review of existing standards to gain a comprehensive understanding of current state-of-the-art knowledge and identify any gaps that need to be addressed. Technical committees (TCs) were engaged to access the relevant standards. Identifying standards that have a direct link to the project, including EN 45552 to EN 45558, ISO 26000:2010, IEC 62474, ISO 14040, ISO 14044, the ISO 14020:2016 to ISO 14025:2010 series, and ISO 14051:2011; Establishing liaisons with TCs to facilitate direct information exchange and collaboration.

By providing detailed information about the products, the project will enable a overall life cycle management for electronic devices . The scope of the standardization project must be clearly communicated to all partners involved. This should include information on the expected time and cost investment . It is important that all partners are made aware of their potential contributions to the standardization process, and how beneficial it is to the project. This is particularly important when it comes to developing a pre-standard, such as a CWA, and actively participating in TCs. To disseminate this information, webinars or the wiki pages of National Standards Bodies (NSBs) or SDOs can be used as resources. In many projects, the time available may not be sufficient to develop a full standard. However, it is still possible to create a pre-standard specification, such as a CWA, which can be developed and published within about 10 months. This pre-standard can then be further developed into a full standard at a later date. CWAs help to disseminate the results of the project and should be actively promoted among the consortium partners. Furthermore, working with an SDO or NSB will help to keep the project up to date with current standardization activities and enables project inputs into the standardization community. It is important for the project team to consider the possibility of creating a pre-standard as a way to disseminate the outcome of the project and make it available for the industry to adopt.

The CircThread initiative aims to establish a circular digital thread methodology that grants access to all data pertaining to a product, including information on its components, age, and cost. This allows for the flow of information throughout the entire life cycle of the product, its components, materials, and chemicals. By providing this enhanced information, the project aims to empower individuals and companies involved in the repair, reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of products to make more informed decisions. The group is working towards creating one or more standardisable solutions and possibly a CWA (Certified Welding Analyst) to provide guidelines for a comprehensive product-related circular digital thread. Presently, products have a shorter lifespan, and the cost of a new product is often cheaper than repair. Furthermore, there is a lack of proper collection and recycling of appliances. The CircThread initiative seeks to utilize existing product-related information to enhance circularity and reduce carbon emissions. At present, much of this information is inaccessible as it is stored by various organizations and individuals across different phases of a product's life cycle. The goal of CircThread is to provide unified access to this information and enable the flow of information throughout the extended life cycle chain of products, their components, materials and chemicals.

From the outset, it was evident to all technology partners and the National Standards Body (NSB) that incorporating existing standards into the new information platform would greatly improve its efficiency and functionality. Furthermore, they would ensure that the information provided is of high quality and is able to interoperate with other technologies already in the market. The variety of use cases for existing standards necessitated the creation of a dedicated standardization work package (WP). Approximately one-third of partners are involved in this WP. It is important to recognize that many existing standards can be used to improve the new information platform, ensure information quality and support interoperability. This is why the project team set up a dedicated Standardization Work Package, with many partners are involved in it.