Dr. Henning Wilts, Wuppertal Institut
A project hopes to counter Germany’s flagging recycling industry with digitisation.
Two researchers at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy are aiming to rejuvenate Germany’s recycling industry, BVSE reports. Dr. Henning Wilts, Head of the Circular Economy Business unit, and Dr. Holger Berg, a project manager at the same unit, are working on a ‘Circular Economy Literacy’, with the aim of kickstarting the digitisation of the recycling industry.
Despite boasting of the world’s leading waste management systems, Germany’s environmentally-friendly credentials are tarnished by the fact that 85 percent of raw materials used in industry are primary materials. Clearly, the scope for improvement is large, although it will not be simple. The quantities secondary raw materials – derived from recycled waste – being used in production are far below what might be expected.
As BVSE highlight, this results in multiple drawbacks: A loss of value; a reduction in resource productivity; and an increase in pollution. It also leaves those industries not embracing secondary materials at the mercy of the volatile commodity markets.
The tendency for companies to favour primary (rather than recycled, secondary) materials is put down to a lack of information: Where and when can recycled materials be utilised, for example? Other uncertainties surround the composition of waste, and what raw materials waste contains.
“In order to better coordinate the transition to the circular economy, there is a need for better coordination of material and information flows, in order to address these problems,” said Dr. Wilts.
Wilts and Berg believe that companies would be more incentivised to use recycled materials if the composition of the material (such as additives for all products within) was more widely known, or available.
“Information on quantities and, in particular, qualities of products – and the raw materials contained in them – must be collected and maintained,” explained Dr. Berg. The researchers assert that the solution lies in digital transformation of the industry, as it provides ‘an information revolution’, and is therefore potentially the key to implementing the circular economy.
BVSE claim that any solution will need to consider more than just disposal, and be relevant much earlier in the production process. The ‘Circular Economy Literacy’, that the Wuppertal Institute are working towards, aims to bring the various players together and create a strategic target for a digitalised circulation economy, in Germany and across Europe.
It is one thing for all parties to desire digitalisation, and to wish for circulatory economy, but how does that become reality – such is the objective of Wilts and Berg. As Dr. Wilts says, “In order to realize resource-conserving and digital recycling, industry, waste management and companies need to be networked to build a functioning value-added network.”
The four key points, according to the pair, and as reported by BVSE, are: Bridge-building between the digital and recycling industries; more support for small- and medium-sized enterprises; highlighting where the digital recycling industry is making progress, and where it could progress further; and finally, keeping an eye on the bigger picture – where is it sensible to advance the industry, where is it needed and where does it help.