Satisfying the intense consumption habits of modern society requires an unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and generates large amounts of waste. The linear consumption process of extraction, use, and disposal is causing drastic environmental imbalances. One way of tackling this challenge is to adopt a circular economy, in which waste is transformed into renewable resources. Professor Fabian Fischer and his team at the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, have developed a three-step wastewater refining process that recovers phosphate fertiliser and other materials from sewage sludge with great efficiency, providing an excellent example of a circular economy approach.