“Every month, a city the size of New York is built somewhere in the world.” This statement by Florian Abel, Head of Sustainability at Holcim Germany, stayed with me after the event “Circular Economy in Hamburg — Engine of Innovation and Strategy for Raw-Material Security” at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce.
The global building stock is expected to grow by another 50 to 80 per cent by 2050. Statistically, each person worldwide owns an average of 148 tonnes of material. At the same time, the world’s population is growing by around 2.6 people per second.
These figures are hard to comprehend. They show why the way we use resources is anything but a niche issue.
Planetary boundaries are an economic issue
Crossing planetary boundaries is, in my view, one of the greatest challenges of our time. At the same time, all of us live and work within a system built on growth, consumption and enormous resource use. I do too.
For me, that is not a reason for resignation. Quite the opposite: we need to live with contradictions and keep working wherever tangible improvements are possible.
The circular economy is far more than waste management or a moral appeal for sustainability.
It affects raw-material security, resilience, innovation, cost structures and new business models. Germany is almost entirely dependent on imports for some critical raw materials. Closing material loops therefore reduces not only environmental impacts, but also strategic dependencies.
More is happening than we tend to notice
One thought ran through the entire event for me: a great deal is already being done in Germany. It simply does not always break through into public awareness.
Negative and destructive messages are loud, simple and ever-present. Work on solutions, by contrast, is often incremental, technical and difficult to explain. It takes place inside companies, ministries, associations, research institutions and public administrations — usually without major headlines.
That is precisely why concrete examples matter.
Aurubis: Circularity at industrial scale
Martin Hauser, Director Circular Solutions at Aurubis, demonstrated what industrial circularity can already achieve. Aurubis processes more than one million tonnes of recycled materials each year and recovers 20 different elements. According to the company, the carbon footprint of its copper cathodes fell by 44 per cent between 2013 and 2024.
At the same time, circularity must not be reduced to a convenient “100 per cent recycled” narrative. Material flows are global, and Europe exports large quantities of copper-bearing scrap. Anyone serious about supply security must therefore think across corporate and national borders.
Holcim: Many solutions are already available
Florian Abel, Head of Sustainability at Holcim Germany, focused on construction, a sector responsible for a substantial share of Germany’s raw-material use and waste. Numerous solutions are already technically feasible: recycled concrete, secondary raw materials, alternative fuels and urban mining.
Technology is not the only bottleneck. Many materials are available, standardised and ready to order — yet demand remains inconsistent.
Public procurement in particular can create a market by making recycled materials the norm and requiring justification for the use of virgin resources.
Tchibo: Circular economy as a business model
Kristina Kölling, Head of Environment & Circularity at Tchibo, offered another perspective: circular services can attract new customer groups.
Tchibo buys back fully automatic coffee machines, refurbishes them and resells them with a two-year warranty. Forty per cent of buyers were new customers. Their primary motivation was not sustainability, but the lower price.
Circular business models therefore need not be merely environmentally sound. They can also be commercially attractive, convenient and customer-centred. That is when they can move beyond the niche.
Federal policy is moving as well
Thomas Kappe, Deputy Head of Unit for the National Circular Economy Strategy and Resource Efficiency at Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry, presented the current policy initiatives.
The National Circular Economy Strategy comprises around 200 measures. An action programme groups twelve priorities to be implemented by the end of 2027, including:
- stronger circular public procurement,
- digital product passports and a cross-sector data ecosystem,
- greater transparency and traceability for products and materials,
- more use of recycled materials,
- investment and innovation funding for circular solutions.
The DigiRess Circular programme provides €50–60 million for digital applications, resource-efficient processes and circular business models.
This will not solve every problem automatically. But it shows that federal policy increasingly recognises the circular economy as a question of competitiveness, resilience and security of supply.
What the panel discussion brought into focus
The closing discussion featured PhD Andrés Fuentes Hutfilter of the OECD, Dr Christian Growitsch of the Hamburg Institute for Innovation, Climate Protection and Circular Economy, Dr Henner Buhck of the Buhck Group and Karen Queitsch of SUND Holding, moderated by Dr Dirk Lau of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. For me, it distilled the debate into three levers:
- Create demand. Public authorities can use their purchasing power to build markets and enable scale.
- Make material flows visible. Companies often know too little about the materials, by-products and needs of other sectors. Regional transparency can enable industrial symbiosis, but requires trust and appropriate safeguards for sensitive data.
- Move into action. Funding can initiate cooperation. What ultimately matters is testing solutions, learning and scaling viable models.
Why Hamburg has particularly strong foundations
Hamburg brings together many of the capabilities a circular economy needs: a major port, industry, logistics, trade, energy, science and a diverse business landscape.
This is the opportunity within the Hamburg 2040 strategy. Climate neutrality and competitiveness must not be treated as opposites. The circular economy can connect both goals — if it is understood not as an isolated sustainability project, but as part of the city’s economic, innovation and location strategy.
The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce can play an important role as a platform: connecting companies, enabling cross-sector collaboration and making existing successes more visible.
My conclusion
Fear of the future will not move us forward. Nor will the idea that we must solve the entire system before we can begin.
A great deal is already happening. We should make this work more visible, learn from one another and remain honest about trade-offs and limitations.
Not everything will work. But every closed loop, every viable business model and every new collaboration is a tangible step.
The decisive question is: which loop can we close more effectively today?
Source and editorial context
This article draws on the presentations and panel discussion at “Circular Economy in Hamburg — Engine of Innovation and Strategy for Raw-Material Security”, held on 23 September 2026 at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. The official event programme lists the speakers; I also refer to the Hamburg 2040 strategy update. This article is not a complete record of the event; it combines selected facts and perspectives with my editorial interpretation.
Note on how this article was created
This article was produced with the support of AI. I disclose this for transparency and do not see it as contradicting personal authorship.
What matters to me is not whether a tool helps create an initial draft. What matters is who sets the direction, sharpens the ideas, leads the iterations, reviews the wording and ultimately takes responsibility for the content.
This article is therefore the result of briefings, iterations, professional judgement and my own editing. I publish only what reflects my perspective and what I am personally prepared to stand behind.