The municipal waste management company "EMiL Entsorgungswirtschaft Minden-Lübbecke AöR" (EMiL AöR) is developing the landfill of the future: the Smart Recycling Factory (SRF). It is located at the active "Pohlsche Heide" landfill site in the German municipality of Hille. Within this framework, a high-performance research infrastructure (abbreviated FIS, per its German name) for circular value creation is to be established and anchored as a regional innovation ecosystem. The goal is to make East Westphalia-Lippe a model region for recycling and the circular economy – creating a place where academia, established companies and start-ups can cooperatively develop and test models and processes for the circular economy under real-world conditions, and make them visible and tangible to the public. In this context, the establishment of a strong innovation network involving regional stakeholders from research, business and administration is of central importance to ensure the successful implementation and full utilisation of the FIS SRF. The development and implementation of the SRF FIS has been spearheaded by EMiL AöR since 2020. In 2025, however, the concept developed up to that point had to be revised due to excessive financial risks. For this reason, the establishment of the innovation network, which had already begun, also had to be put on hold for the time being. Following a successful relaunch of the project, at the end of 2025 the Institute for Resource Efficiency and Energy Strategies (IREES) and the Wuppertal Institute were commissioned by EMiL AöR to support this process.
Building on previous developments surrounding the FIS SRF and the associated innovation network, researchers at the Wuppertal Institute are responsible for the systematic (re)activation and (re)establishment of the network through intensive and targeted involvement of relevant regional stakeholders. To this end, they draw on existing formats and ideas from the network and develop them further, collaborating with the relevant stakeholders to devise and initiate cooperative research and development projects that can be implemented within the FIS SRF. The goal is to establish a regional innovation ecosystem for the circular economy on a sustainable long-term basis. For this purpose, researchers from the Wuppertal Institute conduct a comprehensive network analysis to identify and address gaps in the network, acting as bridge-builders and catalysts for the network. In this way, they ensure that both the individual project ideas and the overarching initiative's main objective – the development and implementation of the SRF as the landfill of the future – move forward.
Another task for researchers at the Wuppertal Institute is the ongoing collection, synthesis, consolidation and communication of activities within and around the FIS SRF – and to make these activities and their results visible and tangible. A key aspect of this is making the findings accessible not only to economic, scientific, political and administrative stakeholders but also to the general public, in order to raise awareness for issues regarding sustainability and the circular economy. Various formats, such as regular reports and an annual project newsletter, are used for this purpose.
The "Innovationsnetzwerk SMART RECYCLING FACTORY" project of EMiL AöR is funded by a grant from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, using funds from the ERDF.