In 1977, a couple of American designers placed a camera on a couple resting on a blanket and began to zoom out. Soon, that first image gave way to that of a park and this to that of a city, a continent, the Earth, the solar system, the galaxy. Then the journey was reversed and the gaze descended from the infinite to the tiny: the skin, the cells, the molecules, the atoms. The short film, known as Powers of Ten, showed that the same reality is transformed when we are able to understand all its dimensions.
Something similar happens with the circular economy. The most everyday image refers us to a gesture: placing a container in the appropriate container. And that gesture matters, because without the involvement of citizens on a daily basis, the system does not work. But broadening the perspective allows us to better understand the challenge: because circularity begins much earlier and continues later. Before reaching the consumer, the containers are designed, manufactured, transported, and placed on the market. Afterwards, they must be collected, classified, recycled and reincorporated, with quality and guarantees, into the production system.
For years, we have focused on only one part of the process. But that plan is no longer enough. Circularity forces us to understand packaging as a design decision, as a business responsibility, as a territorial operation, as traceable data, as an industrial resource and as a competitiveness lever. That is the perspective from which we work at Ecoembes. Three decades managing recycling in Spain have taught us that leading this process successfully requires looking after the entire value chain.
In 2025, our more than 28,000 customers put more than three and a half million tons of plastic, metal, brik, wood, paper and cardboard packaging on the market. This is the real dimension of the challenge: behind this volume companies of all sizes, complex supply chains, public administrations, collection routes, plants, operators and recyclers. A system in which each decision, from the most visible to the most technical, influences the final result.
In the field of domestic packaging managed by Ecoembes, the collaboration between companies, city councils, private operators, recyclers and citizens allowed 1,494,842 tons to be recycled and achieve a recycling rate of 74.6%. But 2025 was also a year of change of scale: for the first time we incorporated the management of our clients’ commercial packaging, key to moving towards a more complete vision of circularity. In this area, 735,527 tons were recycled thanks to the private management of markets, supermarkets, shops and large stores. This figure represents a rate of 47.7%, pending completion with municipal management data.
The results prove the maturity of a model, unique in Europe, built with vision and committed to co-responsibility. But they also drive us to continue improving. To see at the same time the complete picture and the detail: the strategy in the country as a whole and the unique reality of each municipality; the value chain and each design decision and its implications.
To achieve the objectives, Europe is shifting the focus to the origin of the packaging through new regulations. What is put on the market, how it is designed, what materials it incorporates, how its recyclability is accredited and how to extend its useful life are some of the keys to this regulation. Its application will require method, clarity and support, especially for SMEs, but thinking about the unique needs of each client. Therefore, from the sector we must continue to provide value in each decision: convert complexity into solutions, help organizations move from obligation to concrete decision, provide useful tools, technical knowledge and operational capacity so that the transition is not only viable, but successful.
In Powers of Ten, the couple on the blanket, the city, the galaxy, the atoms were not different scenes, but dimensions of the same reality. That is, perhaps, the most current teaching: nothing is fully understood when looked at in isolation. Recycling cannot be understood only as a package in a container, nor as compliance with a standard, nor as waste management. Everything is part of a chain of decisions. Leading this stage means connecting what has been seen separately for too long to evolve from waste management to resource governance.
Wheat Pink She is CEO of Ecoembes