In a circular economy, information is currency

In a circular economy, waste serves as our main source of valuable resources. But to recycle waste back into society as high-value raw materials, we need information about its content and quality. To replace more virgin raw materials with circular alternatives, it is time to put content labels on waste.

20 Mar 2025

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– Imagine walking into a grocery store and seeing a shelf of tins, all without labels. You do not know whether a particular tin contains pineapple or peas. Would you buy it? What would you pay for it? The same applies to raw materials, says Anders Kihl, Chief Strategy Officer and R&D Director at Ragn-Sells Group.

To build a more sustainable society, we need to reuse the materials we already have. But to recover resources from waste in a productive way, we need to know its content and quality. Where did it come from? What substances does it contain? And what about the quality?

– Many industrial processes are expensive and complicated, which requires a lot from the quality of the feedstock used. To replace virgin materials with circular alternatives, we need to know the exact quality requirements of the raw material – and have enough information about the waste stream to be confident that we can meet them, says Anders.

Flat glass recycling is a clear example of the importance of transparency. In 2024, Ragn-Sells inaugurated the first flat glass recycling plant in Sweden. Through new processes and partnerships across the value chain, waste glass can substitute the virgin sand needed to make new glass windows. The ability to share information both upstream and downstream is key here, as the quality and purity requirements for raw materials in flat glass production are meticulous.

"We work hard to ensure that we always know the quality of the waste we use."

Anders Kihl, Chief Strategy Officer and R&D Director at Ragn-Sells Group

– We work hard to ensure that we always know the quality of the waste we use. Unfortunately, we also need to know what is legally possible, as obsolete regulations make it expensive, complicated, and sometimes even illegal to recover resources from waste, says Anders.

For example, Ragn-Sells can produce recovered phosphorus from wastewater that is of higher quality and purity than the conventional product. Still, the EU prohibits its use in animal feed.

– In this case, we have enough information to offer a high-value product with the potential to replace virgin raw materials from deeply problematic sources. But the EU’s outdated view on waste is preventing us from bringing it to market, says Anders.

Stricter sustainability reporting and value chain transparency requirements in the EU will hopefully improve access to information on material flows and waste streams. But to really accelerate the circular transition, Anders believes that a fundamental change in mindset is needed.

– We need to completely change the way we look at waste and embrace it as our main source of sustainable raw materials, concludes Anders Kihl.

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