The German foundation behind the POLYPROBLEM report series, and SINE’s counterpart in the engagement Tell Münzing opened in November 2026 around the foundation’s Foundation Camp on 2026-11-05.
First appearance in this wiki:
sources/roechling/2026-08-01-polyproblem-08-wechsel-geld.md. The self-portrait
below is taken from
sources/roechling/2023-12-01-polyproblem-06-circularity-code.md (p. 55),
i.e. it is the foundation describing itself.
What it says it is
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Founded 1990 by the Röchling entrepreneurial family. The same family owns the Röchling group, “zu den international führenden Anbietern von Hochleistungs-Kunststoffen für die Automobiltechnik, Industrieanwendungen und Medizintechnik” (p. 55). The foundation’s subject matter and its funder’s business are therefore the same material.
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Its theme is narrow and explicit: Kunststoff und Umwelt. It funds both research projects and civil-society initiatives contributing to “einem verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit Kunststoffen im Sinne einer nachhaltigen Kreislaufwirtschaft”.
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Its stated self-conception is the operationally relevant part:
Die Röchling Stiftung sieht sich dabei nicht als reiner Förderpartner, sondern ist vor allem interessiert am Aufbau neuer sektorenübergreifender Kooperationen und Netzwerke.
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It also runs its own activities — the report series being one — aimed at “ein ganzheitliches Verständnis und … integrierte Lösungen”.
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Contact as printed:
www.roechling-stiftung.de,info@roechling-stiftung.de.
⟨Inference: a funder that describes itself as a convenor rather than a grant pipe is the kind of counterpart for which SINE’s offer is legible — the Data Commons framework is a governance product for exactly the cross-sector cooperations this sentence describes. It is also the reason the reports read as convening instruments rather than research: their function is to assemble a cast of named practitioners, not to settle a question.⟩
POLYPROBLEM
A joint initiative of the Röchling Stiftung and the consultancy Wider Sense GmbH (06, p. 54). Wider Sense is a certified B Corporation since May 2015, works on CSR, philanthropy and social investment, and reports 100+ clients in 30+ countries (p. 55).
- 2019: the initiators published a study under the same name, concluding that despite public interest in plastic pollution “eine globale Agenda weiterhin nicht in Sicht ist”, and that few offerings inform on the topic “kontinuierlich, umfassend und wissenschaftlich fundiert”.
- Cadence: two reports a year, written with experts from research and practice, with the stated goal of “mehr Klarheit, Transparenz und Orientierung in unübersichtlichen Aktionsfeldern”.
www.polyproblem.org
Reports in sources/
| № | Title | Date | Wiki page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06 | Der Circularity Code (data and digitalisation) | 2023-12 | page |
| 07 | Die Kluft im Kopf (behaviour and collaboration) | 2025-07 | not yet ingested |
| 08 | Wechsel-Geld — Wer finanziert die Kreislaufwirtschaft? | 2026-08 | page |
Named Röchling Stiftung staff on report 08: Uwe Amrhein, Nicole Bendsen, Christian Gerards (editorial team with Marius Ehrlinspiel and Anna Balzereit of Wider Sense).
⟨Inference: read in sequence the three reports are one argument the foundation
has never assembled itself — 06 finds that the data layer fails on cooperation,
07 on behaviour, 08 on capital steering, and each report’s unanswered question
is the next one’s subject. That observation is the spine of the dossier
dossiers/2026-11-04-polyproblem-06-07-08-drei-reports.md and is the most
direct opening SINE has with this counterpart.⟩
Other Röchling material in sources/
sources/roechling/2025-12-31-roechling-gruppe-nachhaltigkeitsbericht-2025.md— the group’s (not the foundation’s) sustainability report. No wiki page yet; see open tasks.- Six ChatGPT-produced preparation documents handed over by Tell Münzing on
2026-11-03 (
2026-11-03-chatgpt-roechling-*): an international benchmark, a circular-finance partner map, two deep dives (circular finance; physical AI), an integrated strategy and a combined dossier. These are second-hand preparation material, not primary sources, and nothing in the wiki should cite them as evidence.
Related
- POLYPROBLEM 06 — Der Circularity Code
- POLYPROBLEM 08 — Wechsel-Geld
- EEA — Unlocking the circular economy (2026) — ingested for the same engagement; carries the same EUR 1,229 bn figure
- Tell Münzing — opened the engagement