The circular economy inside a company: the five points where it fails

The circular economy appears in many sustainability strategies. What implementation then hangs on is remarkably predictable. Five points come up in almost every conversation, and none of them is technical.

Nobody knows what goes out of the door

Promotional material is the responsibility of marketing, workwear that of purchasing, disposal that of facility management. Three departments, three budgets, no shared overview.

That is why the first step is unspectacular: a list. Which materials come up where, in what quantities, how often, and what happens to them today. Anyone drawing up this list for the first time usually finds stocks that nobody knew about any more.

The order is not observed

The European waste hierarchy (Abfallhierarchie) sets out: prevention, re-use, recycling, other recovery, disposal. In practice people usually start with recycling, because there are providers for it and the quotes come quickly.

It makes sense to work through every material stream from the top down. Can the requirement be reduced? Can the material be used again internally? Can it be processed further? Only when all of that is ruled out does it go to disposal.

The targets are too ambitious for the material

Not every stream can be closed. Heavily worn, chemically contaminated or inseparably bonded material has reached the end of its life. Saying so honestly is better than a project that fails because of the material quality.

With textiles and technical textiles, by contrast, the yield is high. Banners, tarpaulins, flags and clothing can almost always be processed further, as long as the quantity is right.

The internal work lands on one person

That is the most common reason why projects like this fizzle out. If collecting the material, sorting and logistics depend on individuals, it happens once and then never again.

What is workable is to outsource the process as far as possible and to fix only a collection point and one responsible person internally. Sorting, checking and cleaning can be done at the processor.

The figures are looked for too late

Anyone who has to report needs figures: what quantity of material went back into the loop, how many products came out of it, what would otherwise have been disposed of. At the end of a project these figures are easy to record; a year later they can hardly be reconstructed.

The EU-wide separate collection requirement (Getrenntsammlungspflicht) for used textiles has applied since the beginning of 2025. Anyone who knows their own streams meets this requirement in passing.

What turns a project into a routine

A one-off project stays a project. It becomes a circular economy when the routine takes hold again the next time. The simplest way is to tie it to an existing occasion: after every campaign, at every change of uniforms, at the end of every season.

Where you can start

If you do not know whether your materials qualify at all, a rough list with photos is enough. We will tell you which of it can be processed.