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turn consumption data into insight, helping manufacturers cut costs, lower emissions, and build resilience in volatile energy markets.
The material challenge: moving from linear to circular
The bigger question is what goes into the factory in the first place. Global extraction of raw materials keeps climbing, while the share of materials cycled back into use has fallen from nine percent in 2018 to just seven percent in 2023.
Manufacturers are gradually moving away from the traditional‘ take-makedispose’ model toward circular approaches that emphasize reuse and recovery. Recycled plastics are being introduced into raw material and components without compromising technical performances, while metals raw process scrap is being circled back into the supply chain rather than sold or disposed.
Barriers remain – higher costs, limited supplier capacity, and lengthy certification processes both of raw materials and products. These are all symptoms of an industrial system still optimized for linear production rather than circular recovery. Yet adoption is growing. Independently certified Zero Waste to Landfill programs prove it’ s possible to divert 100 percent of factory waste into recycling, reuse, or recovery, driving cultural change and setting new benchmarks for the wider sector.
▲ ABB’ s carbon-neutral factory in Porvoo, Finland
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