Mr. Kirchhoff, what opportunities does the circular economy offer your industry, and is the Kirchhoff Group already exploring potential applications in this area?

The key raw materials for our production—steel and aluminum—already contain a high proportion of circular materials. For the remaining raw materials, particularly plastics, we are working very intensively on establishing the appropriate quality criteria to ensure we use materials that can be recycled. With regard to our finished products, the focus is increasingly on the ability to disassemble components later and reuse the raw materials they contain. This offers us great opportunities to work with our suppliers to return specific materials back into the cycle through targeted processing. The focus here is not only on reducing our carbon footprint but also on the potential for cost savings through the targeted processing of used materials into reusable raw materials.

The BDI’s Circular Economy initiative advocates for an EU-wide market for recyclable raw materials and materials. What strengths set Germany apart as an industrial hub for launching this forward-looking project?

Raw materials are not consumed, but rather used—and some are even transformed during use. Our industrial sector benefits from the highly integrated research and skilled workforce development programs of local companies and industry. We are global leaders in mechanical, thermal, and chemical process engineering. It is precisely these process technologies that play a decisive role in recycling used—or transformed—raw materials. Added to this is a mindset—now instilled as early as elementary school, though naturally still open to improvement—of sorting materials for recycling. What doesn’t end up mixed together in the trash can is easier to reintroduce into the cycle!

The initiative aims to communicate goals, proposals, and successes to the political arena, among other places. What role does politics play in this endeavor, and what might the tools and incentives for promoting the circular economy look like now?

Raw materials extracted from Mother Earth must be priced fairly, reflecting all associated costs. We must resolve the conflict of objectives between supplying our industries with raw materials as inexpensively as possible and ensuring global sustainability. This issue can only be addressed through a global political approach to pricing raw materials based on sustainability considerations—that is, pricing factors that are ecologically, economically, and socially balanced. Prices formed in this way on the raw material markets require political backing. This also includes the use of market-based instruments to set prices for the pollution of water, soil, and air caused by pollutants during the extraction, use, and processing of raw materials. Conversely, we need fewer regulations governing material flows for recycling and greater openness to technology in processing methods, so that all market participants can take the initiative in the spirit of the circular economy. Manufacturers’ post-use responsibility for the products they sell must be more firmly enshrined in law. This also includes the option for manufacturers to contract professional take-back and processing companies, thereby reducing their burden.

German industry wants to be the key driver of the development of a circular economy. How will it achieve this?

We must succeed in bringing the raw materials processing industry and the users of raw materials—as well as the users of finished products—closer together in the spirit of circularity. Open dialogue about a product’s condition after use, about separation and disassembly options, and about the quality requirements for reusable raw materials are key to implementing true circularity. Product development focused on material recycling after use must also be placed at the center of development and design departments. To get this process underway, we need clear legal regulations and fair prices for natural raw materials—based on appropriate sustainability factors—rather than overregulation. In addition, we need technology-neutral processing methods for circularity and unimpeded material flows.