Einsatz von Kennzahlensystemen zur Leistungssteuerung in industriellen Kunststoffrecyclingunternehmen

Abstract

The growing importance of the circular economy and the tightening of regulatory requirements pose major challenges for mechanical plastics recycling companies. Despite their crucial role in reducing environmental impacts, the industry still lacks standardized instruments to manage efficiency, quality, and sustainability in an integrated way. Heterogeneous input streams, quality losses during recycling, and high processing costs hinder sustainable competitiveness. At the same time, EU initiatives such as the Green Deal and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) demand verifiable performance indicators. Against this background, the thesis addresses the question of how a multidimensional performance measurement system can be designed that supports mechanical plastics recycling companies in both strategic and operational management while integrating economic, ecological, and technological dimensions. The structure of the thesis follows a three-part logic. The theoretical part (Chapters 2–3) outlines the specific characteristics of plastics recycling companies, the challenges along the process chain of sorting–washing–extrusion, and existing performance measurement systems. It is shown that classical approaches such as ROI pyramids or the Balanced Scorecard provide valuable foundations but fail to adequately reflect sector-specific requirements without modification. The empirical part (Chapters 4–5) builds on nine AI-simulated expert interviews, analyzed through structured content analysis in MAXQDA. The selection of personas covered a broad range of functions from executive management to quality assurance, ensuring a comprehensive perspective on goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and management practices. The coding process was based on a deductive-inductive approach, combining theory-driven categories with new subcodes emerging from the interviews. The findings highlight the necessity of a performance measurement system that equally addresses process stability, resource efficiency, and sustainability impact. Among the most frequently mentioned KPIs were yield, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), product carbon footprint (PCF), recycelt content of the final product, and financial metrics such as EBITDA margin. In addition, practitioners emphasized the importance of practice-oriented indicators such as disposal costs, revenues from by-products, and specific energy and water consumption. A key insight was that KPIs only unfold their full impact when linked to specific action logics in daily operations, for instance through predefined escalation routines or real-time visualization at the shop-floor level. On this basis, an extended Balanced Scorecard was developed that incorporates two additional perspectives: sustainability as well as material flows & recycling. For each perspective, core KPIs were defined, equipped with formulas, units, and empirical justification. The resulting system creates the transparency required to increase resource efficiency, ensure recyclate quality, and sustainably reduce processing costs—while simultaneously meeting the reporting obligations of the circular economy and sustainability regulations.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Herbert Jodlbauer (Supervisor)