The Research Unit Material Loops focuses on the closing of material cycles as a central prerequisite for a globally sustainable level of resource consumption.
Germany and the European Union are striving for a comprehensive transition to a circular economy. The approach aims to avoid waste, use and reuse products and their components for as long as possible and exploit wastes as potential resources. The associated challenges and questions regarding the design of infrastructures, policy mixes, governance structures and innovation processes are the starting point for research in the field of material cycles.
The vision of the circular economy is closed material cycles. The avoidance, reuse and recycling of waste are not, however, the exclusive goals, but will contribute to a long-term sustainable and a significantly more resource-efficient economic system overall. In doing so, it must be taken into consideration that only limited shares of natural resources can fully circulate in loops. What is more, resources are also needed for the technical recovery of raw materials from waste, and the replacement by bio-based raw materials is also limited due to the global availability of arable land.
The Research Unit Material Loops therefore aims to conduct an interdisciplinary investigation of the following key research questions:
The transformation to a circular economy is a comprehensive technical, political and cultural challenge. It requires completely new approaches combining previously isolated topics such as product design, sustainable consumption or resource-efficient management with waste management issues. To this end, the Research Unit uses quantitative analyses of resource efficiency in the circular economy (MFA, LCA) as well as qualitative and empirical policy analyses of transformation paths and instruments.
The scientists at the Material Loops Research Unit identify and analyse innovative technical and policy approaches that cover the entire life cycle of the material flow – from raw material extraction to disposal. They examine and evaluate policy instruments in terms of their effects, their feasibility and the innovation processes and impacts they induce. The researchers also seek and generate new ideas as to how recyclable products should be designed and how to plan waste management infrastructures that can be flexibly adapted to reduced waste volumes.
You find all scientific publications on our publication server:
Here you can find projects of the Research Unit:
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