German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated in July this year: “We need economic development that turns all of us into winners while enabling us to respect the limitations of our planet.” At the Business 20 summit, the G20 forum for economic dialogue, the German Federal Ministry of Environment also described climate and environmental protection as “important drivers of modernisation for our national economies – that will have positive effects for our competitiveness, the labour market, social cohesion and political stability.” Furthermore, embracing this modernisation and sustainability should apply not just to states but also to companies.

At the ALBA Group, we turn this necessity into a fully-fledged circular economy that is about more than high-quality recycling. It starts with the targeted prevention of waste – for example by reprocessing and reusing products or materials – and extends as far as the integrated optimisation of production processes. The goal is always to prevent wastage, conserve resources and minimise the consumption of energy as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

Together with the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT, we are assessing in the current study ‘resources SAVED by recycling’ the conservation of resources and greenhouse gas reduction through our recycling activities in comparison to primary production. Through the recirculation of around 4.3 million tonnes of recyclable materials, we achieved a total saving of approximately 36.2 million tonnes of primary resources in 2016 as well as almost 4.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Learn more about the study