Circular economy as a security strategy: Why recycling strengthens Europe’s resilience

Supply chains that are more difficult to plan

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important trade routes. If shipping traffic there is restricted, this will affect not only energy exports but also petrochemical raw materials and plastics. For European processors, the consequences can quickly become apparent: higher prices, uncertain availability and supply chains that are more difficult to plan. This places the circular economy in a new strategic context. Returning materials to production after use not only reduces waste and emissions, but also the demand for newly extracted raw materials.

Recycling is becoming a raw materials strategy

Plastics today are predominantly based on fossil raw materials and are closely linked to international supply chains. If extraction regions, production sites or key transport routes are temporarily disrupted, this affects the availability of plastic granules. Recycling offers a decisive advantage here: existing material can be reused. This allows part of the required virgin material to be replaced – thereby reducing dependence on external raw material flows.

This is not about complete self-sufficiency. Virgin material will remain necessary in the future. Rather, the key is to broaden the raw material base and have more options available in the event of a crisis.

Circular economy as part of the company’s own supply chain

For ALPLA, this approach has been part of its business model for decades. The company not only produces plastic packaging but also runs its own recycling operations. Used packaging is processed and the material recovered from it is reused to make new packaging. By 2025, 23.7 per cent of the plastic materials used by ALPLA worldwide were already sourced from post-consumer recycling. At the same time, the company has a recycling capacity of around 400,000 tonnes and plans to expand this to 700,000 tonnes by 2030.

The key point, however, lies not in the individual figure, but in the model behind it: recycling is not viewed as a downstream waste management task, but as an integral part of the company’s own material supply. When virgin materials become scarcer or global supply chains come under pressure, recycled materials provide an additional source of raw materials. This is precisely where the circular economy translates into resilience.

Europe’s raw material store is already on its doorstep

This logic is also relevant for Europe. The continent has only limited reserves of its own fossil raw materials. At the same time, large quantities of valuable plastics are already in circulation – in packaging, products and industrial applications. Whether these are turned back into raw materials depends on how they are used. Educating end consumers, effective collection systems, efficient sorting and high-performance recycling plants keep materials in the cycle. That is why used plastic packaging is also valuable from an industrial policy perspective: the raw material is already available. It does not first need to be extracted, produced and transported over thousands of kilometres.

Resilience requires industrial capacity

Regulation alone is not enough to realise this potential. Europe needs competitive recycling facilities, sufficient high-quality feedstock and a stable market for recycled materials. The key question is therefore not just what recycling rates should be achieved. Equally important is whether the necessary industrial capacities can be built up in Europe and maintained in the long term.

The geopolitical tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz highlight what is at stake here. Europe cannot prevent global crises. However, it can reduce its dependence on them. The circular economy has therefore long since become more than just environmental policy. It is becoming a cornerstone of industrial security. Keeping materials in the cycle not only strengthens sustainability, but also the ability to maintain supply and production capacity in an uncertain world.