Gold mining is extremely resource- and energy-intensive, while at the same time the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is growing rapidly worldwide. WEEE contains highly concentrated gold deposits and thus offers great potential for urban mining and the implementation of the circular economy. Industrially, pyrometallurgical processing in copper smelters dominates, in which plastics in the material serve as an energy carrier. This technique is well established, but causes significant fossil CO₂ emissions, making it difficult to decarbonize. This results in a conflict of goals between increasing recycling rates and climate protection. The study "Climate change vs. circular economy: Challenges of the most common route for recycling gold from WEEE" by German scientists uses a life cycle analysis to analyse the climate balance of this recycling route and examines scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to identify technological and systemic solutions. The study was published in "Sustainability".

Limiting global warming requires greatly reduced CO₂ emissions. The steel sector accounts for around 7 percent of energy-related emissions and is difficult to decarbonize. Recycling is particularly effective here, as steel production from scrap causes significantly fewer emissions than primary production. In addition to new technologies such as hydrogen-based direct reduction, a higher recycling input rate is key. The study "Methodology development for estimating the impact of restriction factors to promote national steel recycling" by Japanese scientists aims to develop a methodology that makes it possible to identify the main barriers to the promotion of steel recycling in different countries and to determine their quantitative effects.

Global plastic consumption exceeded 400 million tons for the first time in 2022. In the EU, it is around 100 kilograms per capita and could double by 2060. Production and processing contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, while mismanagement and losses release millions of tons of macro and microplastics into the environment. The EU has set an important course with the Green Deal, the Plastics Strategy and the Single-Use Plastics Directive. Nevertheless, the recycling rate remains low at around 20 percent, and chemical recycling or bio-based plastics have so far only played a minor role. Against this background, the Joint Research Centre's study "Plastics materials flows in the EU-27 and their environmental impacts" examines plastic flows in the EU-27 for 2022. The aim is to identify fields of action for a circular plastics economy.

The "Global Plastics Flow 2023" study by Conversio Market & Strategy on behalf of BKV, GKV, VDMA, Wir sind Kunststoff and Messe Düsseldorf shows that awareness and initiatives for the environmentally sound treatment of plastic waste and for its circular economy are increasing worldwide, but that progress is not yet satisfactorily related to increasing plastic production.

Plastic is practical, cheap and everywhere, but the price for the environment and health is high. Worldwide, plastic waste accumulates in soils, rivers and oceans, where it decomposes very slowly and enters the food chain as microplastics. The search for alternatives is therefore more urgent than ever. Biodegradable plastics are seen as a beacon of hope. But the reality is more complicated: Many materials only degrade in special composting plants, their production is more expensive, and the necessary infrastructure is often still lacking. The report "Exploring the pathways to sustainability: A comprehensive review of biodegradable plastics in the circular economy" by scientists from China and Pakistan shows how bioplastics can be embedded in the circular economy, where their strengths lie and what hurdles still need to be overcome. The report was published in Materials Today Sustainability.

Today's economy predominantly follows a linear model that consumes and disposes of resources. The circular economy counters this with a model that keeps materials in the cycle for as long as possible. One key to this is deposit systems, which promote the return of packaging through monetary incentives. While they are established in many European countries, the focus of research is mostly on households. On the other hand, the role of companies, especially in the horeca sector, has been little investigated, although there is great potential for resource conservation here. In practice, however, deposit packaging is often not returned. Successful recycling therefore depends both on the behaviour of consumers and on the design of the collection structures. Against this background, the study "Motivating recycling behaviour: The role of deposit return systems and collection point design" by two Dutch scientists examines how guests in a university cafeteria can be motivated to recycle correctly through nudging, prompting and the design of sustainable collection points. The study was published in "Cleaner Waste Systems".

The consumption of textiles in the European Union has been rising continuously for years, with EU citizens now consuming an average of around 19 kilograms of textiles per year. This leads to high resource consumption, waste and environmental pollution. To counteract this, the EU is pursuing a strategy for sustainable and circular textiles. The focus is on longer service life, re-use and recycling, while incineration and landfill are only to be last resorts. A central element is the international trade in second-hand clothing. While high-quality pieces remain in Europe, the majority is exported to countries with corresponding markets, especially Africa. There, as in Kenya, second-hand clothing plays an important role. Using Humana as an example, the Swe-dish Environmental Research Institute has investigated how the value chain from collected tex-tiles in Europe to sorting centres and markets in Kenya is organised and what economic and ecological significance it has for the circular economy.

The transition from a linear to a climate-neutral circular economy is a core goal of the Europe-an Green Deal. For Austria, the transition offers both opportunities and challenges, as a large part of emissions come from raw material processing, especially in energy- and process-intensive industries such as steel and cement production. Circular processes reduce energy demand and emissions and facilitate decarbonization with electrification. The Integrate project, funded by the Climate and Energy Fund, examines the effects of increased use of secondary raw materials in key industries and shows ecological and economic advantages, provided that suita-ble political framework conditions are created. The aim is a transformative innovation policy that promotes economic, institutional and societal changes in addition to technology in order to achieve a climate-neutral circular economy by 2050.

It is true that Germany has been obliged to collect organic waste separately since 2015. However, the quantities have hardly increased in recent years, as a large part of the waste still ends up in the residual waste. Therefore, the question arises as to how both the quality and quantity of the collection quantities can be improved. The report "Investigation of the effectiveness of waste advice, control and sanction mechanisms and other measures to increase the quantity, proportion and purity of separately collected biowaste in different settlement structures" by Infa and L-Q-M on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency attempts to answer this question.

Plastics are one of the most widely used materials. Their versatility and durability make them an integral part of many industries. However, these properties also pose a serious environmental problem. The European Patent Office (EPO) has examined the development of innovation in plastic waste management over a period of five decades on the basis of international patent families (IPFs). It shows that innovations in plastic waste management are increasing significantly and are showing remarkable momentum compared to other technology areas.

The transformation costs money. How much cannot be said for sure. In any case, it is already foreseeable that not enough is being invested. The report "Financing the green transition" by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research and Witten/Herdecke University explains why this is the case and how it can be changed.

How is the environment in Europe doing? This is the question that the European Environment Agency (EEA) has asked itself. In its report "Europe's environment 2025", it comes to the conclusion: not so good at all. Many of the targets the EU has set for 2030 are at risk of being missed.

More than half of global greenhouse gas emissions and around 90 percent of land-use-related biodiversity loss can be traced back to the extraction and processing of raw materials. Nevertheless, global material consumption is growing unchecked.

The transformation to a circular economy is considered a central building block for overcoming ecological challenges such as resource scarcity, environmental pollution and climate change. But while strategies to promote the circular economy are increasingly being developed at the political and economic levels, the public discourse remains fragmented in many cases - characterized by gaps in knowledge, different approaches and sometimes unclear messages. Against this background, public communication and the involvement of citizens play a key role. After all, social acceptance and people's everyday behaviour are crucial for the success of a circular transformation. The "Circular Economy 2025 Key Insights Report", published by the Rediscovery Centre in cooperation with the Irish Department of the Environment, aims to provide a basis for this.

A social transformation towards more sustainability seems inevitable. But for it to be really successful, it must also take social aspects into account. In the study "Cornerstones of a Social Environmental and Climate Policy", the Oeko-Institut, the Forum for the Ecological-Social Market Economy and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research examined on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency how the integration of environmental and social policy can succeed.

The recycling of plastics is a key factor in the transformation to a sustainable circular economy. In the article "A systematic review of plastic recycling: technology, environmental impact and economic evaluation", Chinese scientists provide an overview of the technological advances of the last ten years, assess the environmental impacts on the basis of current life cycle analyses and examine the economic viability of various recycling methods. The article was published in "Waste Management & Research".

Climate change is a classic problem of public goods: the costs of reducing emissions are incurred locally, the benefits are distributed globally. This asymmetry makes international cooperation more difficult and encourages the adherence to fossil fuels, which in many places are supported by explicit and implicit subsidies. In 2022, these subsidies amounted to around $7 trillion globally, of which 82 percent were implicit components. Its abolition is considered a key measure to combine economic, health and climate policy goals, but remains politically controversial. The discussion paper "The Welfare Effects of Explicit and Implicit Subsidies on Fossil Fuels" by ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research uses a multi-regional, multi-sectoral general equilibrium model to examine the welfare effects of the abolition of such subsidies and the introduction of local Pigou prices, which internalise the externalities.

The world is heading for a tripling of plastic waste by 2060. States and municipalities are already struggling to counteract this trend with effective strategies. A central element of such strategies is the behaviour of households in waste separation. Because what goes wrong at the beginning of the disposal chain can hardly be corrected later. In practice, however, it has been shown that the more complex the requirements for waste separation, the greater the likelihood that citizens will separate incorrectly or even refrain from recycling altogether out of frustration or uncertainty. Against this background, a seemingly simple question arises: Could simplifying separation requirements lead to more recycling? This question is addressed by the study "Does simplification of plastic waste separation promote plastic recycling?" from Japan, which analyzes the effect of a targeted intervention in the separation system. The results shed a differentiated light on the conflict of goals between user-friendliness and material purity. The study was published in the "Journal of material cycles and waste management".

The amount of household waste is growing rapidly worldwide, while only a fraction is recycled. A decisive lever lies in the consistent separation of waste directly in households. Classic information campaigns often fall short. An alternative approach is offered by the nudge theory. With small changes in everyday life, people can be persuaded to separate waste more reliably, without coercion or financial incentives. The central question, however, is: What type of nudge works best - and in which living environment? The study "Which nudge works best? Testing Interventions for recyclable waste across residential types" by Thai researchers examines three measures - information messages, physical adaptations of collection points and feedback based on social comparisons - and compares their effect in single-family houses, terraced housing estates and apartment buildings. The aim is to derive practical recommendations on how waste separation can be efficiently promoted. The study was published in "Cleaner Waste Systems".

As with many other products, batteries at the end of life also raise the question of how to handle them further. So far, recycling has been considered the best solution. In the study "Recycling or Second Use? Supply Potentials and Climate Effects of End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Batteries" concluded that continued use is the better option, at least from an environmental point of view. But that doesn't mean that recycling doesn't play a role. The study was published in "Environmental Science & Technology".