Solution Strategies
Innovative concepts for a reimagined circular economy. Valuable resources are conserved, and innovative recycling of plastics contributes to the recovery of secondary raw materials.
Aspects of Preferred Solution Strategies
The elimination of industrial residues and household waste are essential sub-segments of waste management, which until recently solved its assigned task through incineration, final storage on land, or dumping in the seas. In addition, there was the export of waste to foreign countries without any local attention being paid to the exported problem of waste disposal or simple intermediate or final storage taking place there. The ecological orientation of politics and, in particular, the legal framework conditions established in recent years have made it necessary to re-examine industrial waste, household waste, and the disposal of old tires. The focus is no longer solely on waste disposal but also on extracting the highest possible amount of various secondary raw materials from it and reducing residual waste to a minimum. This will allow the use of primary raw materials and primary energies to be reduced if these are combined with the generated secondary raw materials in new industrial productions. Economical use of primary energies is just as necessary from an ecological point of view as achieving the primacy of a CO2-neutral approach to handling incoming industrial and household waste as well as old tires.
Circular Economy and Recycling 4.0 as a Macroeconomic Solution
The concept of the circular economy is becoming increasingly established and is accompanied by the consolidation of the somewhat catchy term Recycling 4.0. This does not refer to a clear-cut definition, but rather describes a new perspective that leads to advanced forms of handling delivered waste and the resulting possibilities of partially reintroducing recovered secondary raw materials into new production processes. The interconnection of individual steps is essential for a high degree of value creation and, consequently, the generation of good return expectations, which make it profitable to establish these new forms of waste disposal entirely or largely without government subsidies in the market.