From Waste to Value: Resource Recovery & CE in Practice

Key Takeaways  

• Resource recovery goes far beyond conventional recycling and focuses on the high-quality recovery of materials, energy and nutrients.

• Economic value is created through quality, scalability and system integration, not through recovery per se.

• Companies reduce raw material risks, stabilize cost structures and strengthen supply security through the strategic reintegration of secondary raw materials. 

• Regulatory requirements such as ESPR, PPWR, CSRD and EPR increasingly turn resource recovery into a management-relevant steering topic. 

• Successful strategies are based on transparent material flow analysis, clear KPIs, integrated governance and early integration into design and investment decisions.

Fundamentals of Resource Recovery  

Resource recovery is not a marginal technical issue of waste management, but an economic question along the entire product life cycle. The decisive factor is not whether materials are recovered, but at what quality level, with what losses and within which system context this recovery takes place. This is precisely where the dividing line between conventional  (1) waste treatment and (2) strategic resource recovery lies. 

Within the circular economy, resource recovery marks the critical transition from the end of use back into new value creation. While product design, material selection and usage determine whether a product is fundamentally circular, the quality of recovery determines whether economic value is preserved or irreversibly lost. Resource recovery is therefore not a pure end-of-life issue, but a reflection of upstream design, material and system decisions.  

H3: Recycling vs. Resource Recovery 

Recycling is often used as an umbrella term, but it obscures fundamental differences. Conventional recycling primarily focuses on disposal safety and volume reduction. Resource recovery, by contrast, addresses the level of recovery: 

• What material quality is achieved? 
• Which function can the material fulfil again? 
• And in which market can it be applied? 

This distinction is strategically relevant, as only high-quality recovery enables genuine substitution of primary raw materials. Recovery below this level may reduce waste volumes, but it often leads to quality losses, new dependencies, and long-term economic inefficiencies. 

Closed-Loop vs. Open-Loop Recovery 

Closed-loop recovery aims to return materials to the same application area at an identical or functionally equivalent quality level. The economic leverage lies in the fact that secondary raw materials can compete directly with primary materials—technically, economically, and regulatorily. 

Typical examples include metals or certain plastics recovered from production scrap or end-of-life products and reintegrated into core industrial applications. Closed loops are feasible where product design, material purity, and take-back systems have been aligned at an early stage. 

Open-loop recovery arises where these prerequisites are not met. Materials are transferred into other applications, often with qualitative or functional limitations. Downcycling gradually reduces material value, while upcycling may selectively increase it but often remains niche- or design-driven. Open loops make an important contribution to waste reduction but, from a corporate perspective, usually represent transitional solutions as long as closed-loop systems are not technically or economically viable. 

Why Resource Recovery Is a Core Principle of the Circular Economy  

Resource recovery operationalizes the fundamental principles of the circular economy in a measurable way. 

First, it shifts the management of waste from a reactive disposal logic toward the active steering of material flows. Materials are not “rescued” at the end, but systematically planned as secondary resources. 

Second, it enables the actual closing of material loops, provided recovery is carried out at a high quality level. Closed-loop systems reduce dependencies on primary raw materials and stabilize cost structures — an increasingly relevant factor in the face of geopolitical and market uncertainties.

Third, resource recovery also addresses the biological cycle. The reintegration of organic materials through anaerobic digestion, composting, or nutrient recovery links industrial processes with ecological regeneration — provided this is done efficiently and with low emissions. 

Resource recovery is therefore not a downstream process, but a strategic examination of how effectively the circular economy is truly implemented. 

Opportunities and challenges: where theory meets reality  

Opportunities: real, but not automatic 

Resource recovery offers considerable ecological and economic potential – but only if it is approached systematically. Ecologically, it reduces primary raw material consumption, waste volumes and emissions. Economically, it strengthens security of supply, reduces raw material risks and opens up new value creation pathways. 

For companies, the key lever is less about abstract sustainability and more about cost stability, resilience and business model innovation. Secondary raw materials reduce price volatility, take-back systems secure access to materials, and new business models – such as product-as-a-service or secondary raw material marketing – extend value chains beyond traditional sales. 

Challenges: structural, not operational 

The limitations of resource recovery are rarely purely technological, but predominantly systemic. Composite materials and complex product architectures make high-quality recovery difficult. Economically, high investments, volatile raw material prices and a lack of economies of scale are conflicting factors. 

Regulatory uncertainties arise from unclear distinctions between waste and product legislation, as well as complex approval processes. Added to this are conflicting environmental objectives: not every form of recovery is automatically beneficial. Energy, water and chemical consumption must be assessed in relation to the actual resource gain. Without reliable life cycle analyses, there is a risk of merely simulating environmental efficiency. 

Legal & economic framework 

Regulation in Europe  

Initiatives such as the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan mark the transition from political models to concrete product and process requirements. Regulations such as the Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR), the Packaging Regulation (PPWR) and extended producer responsibility systems (EPR) explicitly shift responsibility to companies – particularly with regard to product design, take-back and recycling. 

Regulation in Austria  

In Austria, these requirements are implemented through national strategies and the Waste Management Act. For companies, this means that resource recovery influences investment, product development and operational management – regardless of whether it is strategically planned or not.  

Corporate responsibility & reporting

CSRD and ESG finally make resource recovery relevant for management. Material flows, recycling rates, secondary raw material content and avoided emissions become measurable, comparable and verifiable. Resource recovery thus becomes a management task rather than a communication measure. 

Business perspective: Why resource recovery is strategically crucial   

1. Cost efficiency & competitive advantages  

From a business perspective, resource recovery primarily affects cost and risk structures. The recovery of secondary raw materials reduces dependence on volatile commodity markets, geopolitical risks and supply chain disruptions. This creates a strategic advantage, particularly in material-intensive industries: costs become more predictable, procurement risks are reduced and material availability becomes an internally controllable factor.  

2. Sustainability & brand positioning  

At the same time, resource recovery is gaining importance as a credibility factor in the context of ESG, CSRD and stakeholder expectations. The decisive factor here is not the existence of individual recycling measures, but their systematic integration and measurable impact.  

Companies that manage and report on resource recovery transparently build trust among investors, customers and regulators. Sustainability thus becomes an integral part of corporate management – with a direct influence on brand perception, access to capital and regulatory certainty.  

3. Business models with resource recovery  

Resource recovery becomes particularly relevant strategically where it enables new business models. Product-as-a-service approaches, structured take-back programmes or the targeted distribution of secondary raw materials extend value chains beyond traditional sales. Practical examples such as the recovery of high-quality metals from electronic waste or the use of organic waste to produce biogas show that resource recovery not only reduces costs but also opens up new revenue streams – provided that material flows, technologies and market applications are consistently coordinated. 

Methods, technologies and examples of resource recovery  

The operational implementation of resource recovery is based on a combination of different methods and technologies, the selection of which depends largely on the type of material, the complexity of the material flow and the desired level of added value.   

Technological approaches  

Technological approaches to resource recovery can be differentiated into mechanical, chemical and biological processes depending on their operating principle and depth of intervention.  

Mechanical processes  

Mechanical processes often form the basis of resource recovery. Shredding, sorting and separation enable the fractionation of material flows and are particularly well established for metals, glass, paper and mineral building materials. However, their performance depends heavily on material purity and product design. 

Chemical processes  

Chemical processes expand the possibilities where mechanical separation reaches its limits. Pyrolysis and depolymerisation allow complex plastics to be recycled at the molecular level, while solvent-based separation processes and metallurgical processes enable high-quality recovery even from heavily mixed material streams. These processes are technologically sophisticated, but open up real closed-loop potential. 

Biological processes Biologische Verfahren 

Biological processes address organic material flows in particular. Anaerobic digestion produces biogas and usable nutrients, composting returns organic materials to the biological cycle, and bioleaching shows that even metal recovery can be supported by microbes. Process integration is crucial here in order to minimise emissions and resource use. 

Methods, technologies & fields of application  

Fields of application range from material recycling, reuse and urban mining to waste-to-energy approaches and recovery from wastewater. The strategic difference lies less in the ‘if’ than in the value level of the recycling.  

Recycling (material recovery)  

Material recycling remains a key area of application, particularly for paper, glass, metals and plastics. The strategic difference lies less in the ‘if’ and more in the closed-loop share: the higher the rate of recycling into equivalent applications, the greater the economic effect. 

Reuse 

Reuse occurs earlier in the life cycle and is often the most efficient way to preserve value. Reusable packaging, refurbished electronics or reused components avoid energy-intensive processing steps and maximise resource conservation per use. 

Urban Mining 

Urban mining refers to the systematic exploitation of existing buildings, infrastructure, products and waste streams as secondary sources of raw materials, shifting raw material extraction specifically to urban areas. Buildings, old appliances and even landfills become strategic raw material stores, especially for metals and critical materials. 

Waste-to-Energy 

Waste-to-energy encompasses processes for the energetic recovery of waste, in which residual materials that can no longer be used as raw materials are converted into usable forms of energy such as electricity, heat or biogas by means of thermal or biological processes. This approach is used as a last resort when material recovery is no longer feasible and must always be critically weighed against alternative uses. 

Recovery from wastewater  

Recovery from wastewater is becoming increasingly important. Phosphorus and nitrogen recovery, water recycling and energy generation from sewage sludge show that even supposed residual flows have strategic potential. 

Industrial examples  

Successful resource recovery approaches are characterised by the fact that they consistently combine technological solutions, stable material flows and economic utilisation paths. This is particularly evident in raw material-intensive industries.  

In the metal industry, structured scrap cycles are considered the benchmark for functioning closed-loop systems. Recovery takes place via integrated recycling processes that are technically and organisationally embedded in existing industrial production systems. Metals such as copper and precious metals are processed directly from industrial waste, electronic scrap and end-of-life products and returned to core metallurgical processes without any loss of quality. This enables very high recovery rates to be achieved and secondary raw materials to be reused in industrial applications with virtually no loss. 

In the plastics sector, too, chemical recycling processes are opening up new recovery pathways for waste streams that cannot be recycled mechanically, or only to a limited extent. A key example is the pyrolysis of mixed or contaminated plastic waste: plastics are thermally decomposed in the absence of oxygen and converted into a liquid pyrolysis oil. This oil can then be used as a raw material in existing petrochemical production processes, for example to manufacture new plastics. The key difference to conventional recycling is that the material is returned to the production cycle at the molecular level. This means that even complex plastic fractions that were previously considered non-recyclable can now be used again for high-quality applications. Studies show that chemical recycling unlocks closed-loop potential, particularly where mechanical processes reach their limits in terms of quality or purity. 

In the food and agricultural industry, the energetic use of organic waste shows how resource recovery can address both ecological and economic goals at the same time. Production waste such as food scraps, by-products from food processing or organic sludge are biologically broken down in anaerobic digestion plants. This produces biogas, which can be used directly to generate electricity and heat or processed into biomethane and fed into the gas grid. At the same time, fermentation residues are produced, which are returned to the biological cycle as nutrient-rich fertilisers. 

Insights from EFS Consulting circular economy experts  

From a consulting perspective, resource recovery rarely fails because of technology – but rather because of a lack of strategic anchoring. Successful programmes follow a clear logic: first transparency about material flows, then technological and economic prioritisation, followed by scalable implementation and finally control-relevant KPIs. It is crucial to treat resource recovery not as a sustainability initiative, but as part of operational and strategic corporate management. 

EFS Consulting supports companies at precisely this interface – from analysis and implementation strategy to integration into governance, reporting and investment decisions. 

Conclusion  

Resource recovery is not a sustainability issue, but rather a value-added factor. The decisive factor is not whether materials are recovered, but rather the quality of the recovered materials, the level of system integration and the economic effect. Only where recovery is high-quality, plannable and industrially compatible can a genuine substitution of primary raw materials occur.

Isolated recycling measures remain ineffective as long as product design, take-back structures and processing technologies are not consistently coordinated. Recyclability is not determined at the end of the life cycle, but in strategic preliminary decisions.

Companies that view resource recovery as a management task gain control over material flows, stabilise costs and secure their competitiveness amid increasing regulatory and geopolitical pressure. Those who wait will have to implement the circular economy, but under regulatory pressure and without economic leeway.

EFS Consulting supports you in the end-to-end design of resource recovery strategies for your company – from the structured identification of relevant material flows and the techno-economic evaluation of suitable recovery options to regulatory-compliant implementation. The focus is on measurable value creation, operational scalability and the long-term securing of strategic competitive positions.   

FAQs  

What is resource recovery?  

Resource recovery refers to the targeted recycling of materials, energy or nutrients from waste streams into new value-added processes, whereby quality, system integration and economic benefits are crucial.  

What are some examples of resource recovery?  

Examples include the recovery of metals from production waste or electronic scrap, chemical plastic recycling, the production of biogas from organic waste, and the recovery of nutrients and energy from wastewater. 

What forms of recycling and recovery are distinguished?  

There are basically three different types:  

• Material recovery 
• Raw material recovery & 
• Energy recovery  

From a strategic point of view, the decisive factor is the level of value that is retained or generated by each type.