The circular economy has gone from being ‘the right thing to do’ to becoming an industrial strategy for gaining productivity, securing supply and reducing exposure to volatile prices. In the midst of the energy transition, the Iberian Pole, with its manufacturing base, Atlantic and Mediterranean ports and cross-border clusters, has the opportunity to relocate value, close critical material loops and position itself as a preferred supplier of components designed to repair, reuse and recycle.
From theory to obligation: the new framework and its translation into practice
Between 2024 and 2025, regulatory measures have come into force that change how products are designed, manufactured and marketed: eco-design requires a digital product passport, traceable data and a ban on destroying surpluses; the right to repair requires the availability of spare parts and after-sales information; the new packaging framework sets targets for reduction, reuse and recyclability from the design stage; and batteries incorporate traceability and mandatory recycled content.
What does this mean in practice for an Iberian plant and its supply chain?
Every product must be designed with a defined end of life (disassembly, recyclable materials, standardised parts), reverse logistics must be integrated into operations from day one, EPR (extended producer responsibility) must reorganise contracts in sectors such as textiles and packaging, and compliance must cease to be a passive cost and become a commercial advantage in tenders and approvals. Failure to adapt impacts margins (landfill/incineration fees, penalties for packaging and waste) and access to customers who already demand digital passports, recycled content and repairability guarantees.
The executing arm: 4.0 technologies + industrial symbiosis
Circularity becomes operational with a clear tandem. Technology 4.0: additive manufacturing for on-demand spare parts (less stock and transport, more retrofitting), robotics and vision for sorting and dismantling with secondary raw material quality, IoT for real use and predictive maintenance that extends service life, and data/AI for traceability, route planning and digital twins of material flows that feed into the digital passport. Industrial symbiosis: one company’s by-products (materials, water, heat, logistics) become another company’s inputs, scaling up in eco-industrial parks and clusters in the Iberian Pole.
The result is threefold: lower management costs (less waste without a destination and lower fees), new revenue from recovered by-products, and a smaller footprint per unit produced, with supply resilience in the face of external bottlenecks. The challenge lies in ensuring the quality and traceability of secondary materials, long-term contracts with recyclers, and rules for data interoperability between manufacturers, managers, and by-product marketplaces.
From smoke to the sidelines: roadmap for the Iberian Pole
The economic signal is already pushing in the right direction: landfill/incineration taxes make linear options more expensive, while demand for secondary material certified by regulation and due to supply risk is growing. Effective implementation depends on five interlinked steps:
- Map flows and prioritise the 20/80 rule (which waste has the highest cost/volume and which by-products can be sold);
- Redesign critical references with criteria for dismantling, recyclable materials and standardised parts, generating the minimum data for the digital passport (composition, origin, repairability, end-of-life instructions) from the outset.
- Establish a repair/remanufacturing line for rotating parts—with after-sales service contracts and warranties—;
- Integrate reverse logistics and EPR agreements with Iberian Pole partners for textiles, packaging and batteries, ensuring a stable supply of secondary materials;
- Sign framework agreements with recyclers and recovery operators to guarantee quality and price. Measure using a few key KPIs: % of recycled material in product, % repaired/remanufactured, sorting rejection rate, cost avoided per tonne, income from sale of by-products and CO₂ per unit.
With its industrial scale, ports, growing renewable energy sector and metalworking industry, the Iberian Pole can translate circularity into profit margins, access to demanding European supply chains and a product narrative that combines compliance and competitiveness.