The Circle Hub, founded by Daniel Imhäuser, shareholder and managing director of the Blasius Schuster Group, currently brings together around 80 partner companies and is regarded as Germany’s central platform for circular construction. Here, actors from industry and academia develop solutions to use resources more efficiently and drastically reduce CO₂ emissions through optimized recycling. The visit highlighted that while technical solutions are already available, the challenge now lies in practical scaling and reducing bureaucratic hurdles.

Our institute director, Prof. Dr. Danièle Waldmann-Diederich, also participated in the expert dialogue and presented current research projects to Federal Minister Patrick Schnieder. A key focus was the ongoing project “ReAsCon” at the Institute for Solid Structures at TU Darmstadt: using the example of the Ludwigshafen elevated highway, an urban mining concept is being developed for the deconstruction of asbestos-containing concrete.

Platforms like the Circle Hub demonstrate that circular economy in construction is no longer a future topic—it is being actively implemented today and can simultaneously serve as a strategic competitive advantage for Germany.