Month: November 2025

The Metal Working Group of the Round Table for Circular Value Creation NRW supports the transformation of the metal industry towards a climate-neutral circular economy.

For the second time, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was an opportunity for various players in the value chain, as well as people from science and politics, to come together. This enabled an exchange of ideas on concrete solutions and technologies in the areas of circular design, modularity, digital product passports and scrap quality. Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich and our doctoral student Carina Diemel were also in attendance.

The meeting of stakeholders showed in the discussion that only through cooperation and collaboration between all parties can circular approaches in the metal industry be advanced.

There are already some exciting examples of circular economy strategies being implemented. Examples include offsee GmbH / ID Lab, Outokumpu and TSR Group GmbH & Co. KG – Recycling.

The theme table plans to continue discussing higher R strategies and their implementation at upcoming meetings.

More on the metal theme table: Metal theme table – Round table

The necessity and technical feasibility of recovering phosphorus from sewage sludge is a widely discussed topic within the environmental industry. Nevertheless, the expansion of appropriate facilities is lagging behind, so concepts are needed to bridge the gap. In this interview, our speaker, Konstantin Saure, talks to Hartmut Haeming, CEO of InwesD – Interessengemeinschaft Deutscher Deponiebetreiber e.V. (Association of German Landfill Operators) – about the role of temporary storage of sewage sludge ash in landfills, and the many issues that still need to be resolved. The interview has been published in the current issue of the Springer trade journal Wasser und Abfall (Water and Waste). We would like to thank Mr Haeming for his fascinating insights, and Gabi Gerhardt, Markus Porth, and Florian Bischof from the editorial team for organising and conducting the interview.

On 22 October 2025, our two scholarship holders and speakers, Carina Diemel and Klara Theobald, had the opportunity to participate in the 10th Japan Get-together at the EUREF Campus Düsseldorf and present the courses offered by the Talent Campus Düsseldorf on behalf of our chairman, Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich. The event was organised by the Japan Desk of the City of Düsseldorf’s Economic Development Agency and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Düsseldorf. Japanese companies based in Düsseldorf are informed about new projects and developments in Düsseldorf at this event.

After welcoming remarks by Ms Annette Klerks (Deputy Head of Economic Development), Mr Masakazu Tachikawa (Managing Director of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and Mr Jörg Philippi-Gerle (Site Manager of the EUREF Campus Düsseldorf), our scholarship holders presented the new master’s programmes offered by the Talent Campus at the EUREF Campus Düsseldorf. This was followed by an exciting tour of the EUREF Campus led by Mr Jörg Philippi-Gerle, with stops at the Club Zukunft and the energy centre, among other places, and interesting presentations by Ms Hannah Beckschulte, Mr Florian Fuchs and Mr Jonas Schnorrenberg from Stadtwerke Düsseldorf.

The event concluded with a networking get-together with representatives from the participating Japanese companies.

A big thank you to Ms Juliane Neu and everyone else involved for the invitation and the excellent organisation of this successful event.