From the week ending November 29, 2025
Here are the biggest recent developments in circularity — material use, recycling, resource loops — and why they matter globally.
Recent Moves & System Upgrades
– TOMRA rolls out outdoor reverse-vending hardware for deposit-return programs
- On Nov. 19, 2025, TOMRA launched the TOMRA S2 Rugged Plus, a high-capacity, fully outdoor reverse-vending machine (RVM) that accepts PET bottles, cans, and reusable glass — even in rain or snow.
- First deployment is in Poland, a country that just launched a national deposit-return system (DRS).
- Impact: This marks a significant upgrade to circular-packaging infrastructure — enabling convenient, large-scale container returns even where indoor space is scarce. That should increase recycling rates, generate cleaner material streams, and support deposit-return schemes becoming viable at scale globally.
– CIRCU-Taiwan emerges as a cross-industry circular hub — building a national resource-reuse system
- On Nov. 24, 2025, CIRCU-Taiwan announced its formal launch as Taiwan’s first cross-industry alliance dedicated to circular economy across key sectors: cement, steel, construction materials, solar energy, waste recycling, etc.
- Their goal: annually recycle over 200 million metric tons of inorganic resources, transforming what were waste streams (slag, by-products, etc.) into feedstocks for construction & manufacturing — reshaping heavy-industry supply chains toward circular, low-carbon materials.
- Impact: This initiative signals a shift from narrow recycling to full-system resource loops — closing the loop in sectors historically characterised by high resource consumption and emissions (construction, steel, cement). If successful, CIRCU-Taiwan could become a model for circular industrial infrastructures worldwide.
- On Nov. 26, 2025, the op-ed “ESRS E5 Resource Use and Circular Economy” highlighted how businesses in Europe must now integrate circular-economy data and reporting under broader sustainability regulation triggered by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
- This pushes companies to transparently track materials use, waste, reuse, and circular-economy performance — raising the bar beyond voluntary sustainability pledges.
- Impact: Mandatory reporting drives accountability — companies have to recognize resource-use efficiency, waste reduction, and recycled content as material risk/opportunity factors. Over time, this will likely shift procurement, design, and production decisions toward circularity.
Underlying Context: Why Circularity Remains a Major Challenge
- According to the 2025 Circularity Gap Report 2025, only 6.9% of the more than 100 billion tons of materials entering the global economy each year now come from recycled (secondary) sources.
- That low “circular material use rate” shows that despite pockets of progress (new infrastructure, corporate pledges), the global system remains heavily dependent on virgin resource extraction.
- It means that system upgrades — like hardware (RVMs), cross-industry recycling hubs, reporting frameworks — are still only scratching the surface. Real circular transformation requires both scale and systemic shifts.
What This Means — And What to Watch Next
- Hardware + policy + industry alignment matters: The TOMRA deployment shows how infrastructure upgrades (reverse-vending machines) can enable circular packaging loops; CIRCU-Taiwan shows how systemic collaboration across heavy industries can turn waste into reusable materials; regulatory frameworks (like ESRS E5) push businesses to integrate circularity into core strategy. The combination of all three makes circularity realistic beyond pilot projects.
- Scaling circularity will remain the bottleneck: With global circular material uptake at under 7%, there is a huge gap between ambition and reality. To close that, we’ll need many more initiatives like CIRCU-Taiwan — across regions, industries and material types.
- Circular economy as competitive advantage: As reporting demands and resource-security risks grow, companies embracing circular models early may gain advantages — resource security, cost savings, regulatory compliance, and reputational benefits.
- Potential risks & challenges: Scaling these systems is non-trivial — it requires investment, standardization, reliable collection infrastructure, and shifts in procurement & consumption patterns. Without that, circularity could remain niche or symbolic.
