Raw material consumption has tripled worldwide since 1970. In a country comparison, Germany ranks among the top countries. The excessive consumption of raw materials and resources contributes massively to the crisis of global warming, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. Nothing less than the future of current and future generation is at stake – environmentally, economically and the future of a global community. Our linear economic model is the cause of the high consumption of primary raw materials with all its negative implications. What we need is the implementation of a holistic Circular Economy (CE) that makes use of all circular measures. Germany’s existing laws, political programmes and strategies are too non-binding and incongruent, nowhere near ambitious enough. Expectations are now focused on the National Circular Economy Strategy (NCES), which is still in development.  The process is being supported by researchers and proposals from the scientific community: WWF Germany has developed the “Circular Economy Model Germany”  together with Öko-Institut, Fraunhofer ISI and FU Berlin (published in November 2023). 

The key to the transformation from a linear to a circular economy is that companies need to adopt the circular model. Government policies can guide and support companies in the process; thus, policy recources also need to align with the concept of circular economy.