As climate change accelerates, businesses around the globe can be part of the solution by reducing their environmental impact. Circularity offers a practical and forward-looking solution: designing systems that reuse materials, minimize waste, and reduce emissions. It’s not just good for the planet and for the future generations, it’s good for business as well. Circular strategies help companies cut costs, meet customer and regulatory demands, and build long-term resilience. For Bekaert, circularity is not just a strategic choice, it’s a responsibility.

Circularity is driven by the urgent need to address climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. As global consumption rises, the traditional linear model of production (extract, use, discard) has proven unsustainable. Circularity offers a regenerative alternative, where materials are reused, recycled, and kept in circulation for as long as possible. This reduces waste, lowers emissions, and preserves ecosystems. 

Governments, scientists, and communities worldwide are recognizing circularity as essential to achieving climate goals, protecting biodiversity, and ensuring long-term environmental resilience. It’s a shift toward living within planetary boundaries and creating systems that work in harmony with nature.

For companies and their customers alike, circularity aligns with rising sustainability goals. Businesses are under pressure to meet regulatory standards and reduce their carbon footprint, while customers increasingly seek products that reflect environmental responsibility. Circularity supports these ambitions as a key enabler of a more sustainable future.

As a sustainable company in the steel value chain, Bekaert recognizes that its energy-intensive processes and high use of steel come with a significant environmental footprint. Circularity is therefore not just a strategic choice, it’s a responsibility. By embedding circular principles into its operations and development of products, Bekaert aims to reduce emissions, conserve resources, and mitigate the impact of virgin material use.

“Circularity is more than a trend, it’s a fundamental shift in how we think about sustainability. The only way to be truly sustainable is to reuse what we’ve already used”, says Elka Assayag Cohen Kaefer, Sustainable Solutions Director at Bekaert.  

A three-pillar strategy

Bekaert’s circularity approach touches every part of the business through three key pillars:

1. Customer solutions & services – developing circular products, recycling end-of-life materials, and extending product lifetimes.
2. Circular production processes – reusing water, waste, and packaging, while recovering materials and energy within production.
3. Partnering with the supply chain – sourcing recycled and low-emission steel, and working with suppliers and customers to certify and scale sustainable materials.

Beyond environmental benefits, circularity delivers clear business value. Customers are increasingly asking for sustainable products and recycled content as regulations are tightening. Additionally, circular practices reduce dependency on limited resources, lower energy and material costs, and enhance brand reputation. 

Customer solutions and services

There are diverse opportunities to create new products from customers' end-of-life materials, contributing to a more sustainable lifecycle. For example, in tire recycling, tire cord can be mechanically separated from rubber and reused directly as scrap in steel production; or chemically treated and repurposed as clean steel scrap. These materials can be transformed into steel fibers for concrete reinforcement, such as in Dramix® applications. Bekaert recently acquired a company to broadly market this new innovative and sustainable technology: recycled steel fibers from end-of-life truck tires, that enhance the performance of steel fiber reinforced concrete. Other opportunities include recycling polymer (thermoplastic) ropes through thermal processes and exploring the potential of electrolyzer component recycling, though further development and innovation in this area are needed.

Circularity also includes extending the lifetime of products. Bekaert now offers material inspection and maintenance services, with ropes serving as a clear example, though the potential goes well beyond this application. Additionally, tracking materials throughout the supply chain improves recycling efficiency and in the future, Digital Product Passports (DPP) will provide detailed lifecycle data, supporting traceability and regulatory compliance. 

Circularity in production

In its production processes, Bekaert applies circularity to drive both sustainability and efficiency. By reusing water, production waste (e.g. platinum in the production of electrolyzer components) packaging materials, and by recovering waste heat, Bekaert reduces its environmental footprint while maximizing resource value.

Partnering with suppliers

Sourcing sustainable materials is the third pillar of Bekaert’s circularity strategy. This presents a significant opportunity for Bekaert to advance circularity and reduce environmental impact. The company collaborates with steel suppliers to purchase wire rod made from recycled steel or from steel with high recycled content (HRC), aligning with customer expectations and sustainability goals. This requires close collaboration with suppliers to ensure availability and with customers to assess their needs and willingness to invest in HRC-based products. Certification of recycled content is increasingly requested, with Bekaert prioritizing its own recycled content definition while working toward ISCC+ certification and considering standards like GSCC. 

Looking ahead, Bekaert also sees potential in sourcing direct reduced iron (DRI) steel, which, although not recycled, offers low CO₂ emissions and could become available from 2026 onward. It’s important to recognize that some customers prioritize low-emission steel over recycled content, highlighting the need for flexibility in meeting diverse sustainability expectations.

While circularity brings significant advantages, it also presents several challenges. “One of the main hurdles is cost: producing goods with recycled steel remains more expensive as long as it isn’t the industry standard. To support this shift, customers worldwide need to embrace a new mindset”, says Elka Assayag Cohen Kaefer. Additionally, manufacturing processes must be adapted to accommodate recycled materials. For instance, although tire recycling is well-established, separating the tire cord from the rubber remains a complex task.

Another challenge is the purity of recycled steel. “Scrap materials inevitably contain trace elements of other substances, but we are confident that these can be effectively analyzed and managed”, says Elka Assayag Cohen Kaefer. Customer perception also plays a critical role. Some industries still associate recycled materials with lower quality, which slows down adoption. However, research by Bekaert in collaboration with the University of Leuven shows promising results in concrete recycling, where reused fibres can achieve up to 75% of the performance of virgin fibres.

“The goal isn’t to replace all virgin materials in a sector with recycled ones, but rather to reduce their use where possible, and identify which products in other sectors can be substituted with recycled materials based on performance requirements. Recycled fibres are well-suited for less demanding applications, while virgin materials may still be necessary for high-performance needs”, says Elka Assayag Cohen Kaefer.

Changing customer perceptions is key, and education and advocacy will be essential in driving this transition, tasks Bekaert is committed to take on as a market leader in steel wire transformation and a pioneer since 1880.

As Bekaert is not a recycling company and is not at the end of the supply chain, recycling will require collaboration with technology partners. Still, the transition toward circularity demands new capabilities, particularly in working with polymers and advanced materials. Fortunately, Bekaert has a solid foundation in metals. “It’s not a question of capabilities, but of priorities. In today’s uncertain world, we must allocate resources wisely, and Bekaert is well-positioned to take a leading role in the steel industry's recycling ecosystem. And as that ecosystem expands, so too will its efficiency, bringing greater benefits for both business and the planet”, says Elka Assayag Cohen Kaefer.

Circularity is not a one-time initiative, it’s a continuous journey of improvement, innovation, and collaboration. By embracing this strategy, we’re not only reducing our environmental footprint but also shaping a more resilient and responsible future. Together, we have an opportunity. So let’s create a better tomorrow, together.