How Circular Are Businesses in Germany?

The basic concept of a circular economy is to use resources for as long as possible by minimising the material and energy demands as well as the waste and emissions of an economic system (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Neligan et al., 2022). It focuses on the entire value chain or the complete product life cycle: this includes the extraction of raw materials, the product design, the manufacturing of semi-finished and finished goods and products as well as the use and subsequent recycling of materials. Ideally, products are designed for the longest possible lifetime, reuse and recycling, and appropriate raw materials are used during the design phase. This enables the reuse, refurbishment or return of products to the material cycle at the end of their lifetime. Product and service systems need to be adapted to this, and there is scope for new business models to meet these requirements (Deloitte and The Federation of German Industries, 2021). Well-functioning markets for secondary raw materials as an essential pillar of a circular economy have to operate across borders to ensure demand. The goals of a circular economy are to optimise and prolong the use of resources and ultimately to return and reuse resources in a closed loop.