“We were further ahead – and then we forgot how”
For Orth, the circular economy is not a new invention. Historically, raw materials were valuable and reuse was self-evident. Today, much of that mindset has been lost.
The biggest problem of the circular economy is not technology – it is the lack of awareness of responsibility.
Convenience, short-term market logic and an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality prevent material loops from being consistently closed. Technology cannot replace a missing sense of responsibility.
Orth is particularly critical of the role of users: products are used, disposed of – and mentally written off. Responsibility ends at the bin. From his perspective, this way of thinking is systemically flawed.
Digitalisation: an enabler for transparency, quality and cooperation
Digitalisation plays a central role in Orth’s thinking – not as an end in itself, but as a decisive enabler of functioning circular systems.
Digitalisation in itself is essentially useless. It consumes energy and resources. Its value only emerges through the communication of data across the entire cycle.
Especially in complex value chains, Orth sees digital solutions as a major opportunity: they make information available, comparable and usable – across company and industry boundaries. Without reliable data on material composition, additives and end-of-life product properties, high-quality recycling is simply not possible.
Orth views concepts such as digital product passports particularly positively. They create the basis for clearly identifying products, controlling recycling processes in a targeted way and ensuring reproducible quality.
If we want mechanical recycling to reach a level where recyclates can replace virgin material, we need maximum transparency about the product.
Orth sees enormous development potential in mechanical recycling in particular. Advances in sensor technology, sorting, data availability and plant control systems are helping to make recyclates more reliable and marketable.
Digitalisation thus becomes the connecting element between product requirements, material quality and the market.
This is precisely where Orth sees the added value of digital platforms such as plastship: they create transparency around material flows, provide quality-assured data and connect market players along the entire value chain – not as a technical gimmick, but as a concrete foundation for functioning, economically viable circular systems.
Standardisation means mutual understanding
Closely linked to digitalisation is the topic of standardisation. For Orth, standards are not a bureaucratic burden, but communication tools.
Standards define how materials behave – they create a shared language.
In practice, however, the fear of losing intellectual property often prevents the necessary openness. This becomes particularly evident, for example, in the automotive industry, where end-of-life vehicles are shredded rather than dismantled in a targeted way because reliable information about the materials used is lacking.
Recycling in crisis – but in transition
Orth takes a differentiated view of the current economic situation of the recycling industry. For him, this is not a failure, but a transitional phase.
Many plastics recyclers are small and medium-sized enterprises with limited capital and innovation capacity. Under these conditions, research, scaling and efficiency gains are difficult to achieve.
In the long term, larger units are needed. The critical minimum scale is well above 100,000 tonnes of output per year.
Consolidation, cooperation and new investments are therefore unavoidable – and at the same time a prerequisite for stability.
