Bottom-up organized recycling networks as strategies for corporate sustainability

Sustainability has become an urgent requirement and challenge for society as well as for decision makers in policy and economy, considering the limited resources and growing consumption. Sustainability is interpreted in ecological, economic and social dimensions. Ecologically, non-renewable resources must not be disposed anymore but regained in product and material cycles. Managing material cycles requires the coordination of companies along the end-of-life processing chain. However, a central coordinating institution may not appear. Developing and supporting bottom-up structures, which integrate recycling companies on a voluntary basis seems promising. This paper describes an approach of how to organize bottom-up recycling networks. Considering different goals in recycling, like material value or focus on special materials, technological strategies for WEEE-waste are evaluated and matched with actual material prices. Companies are able to compare their course of action with theoretical options in order to improve competitiveness.