The plastics circular economy needs digital methods and solutions for its products and processes. Actors in the value chain need to exchange raw materials and product requirements as well as material composition and availability. Here, concepts for cross-company data rooms and expanded governance structures can create transparency and promote larger business activity. A system of interfaces between companies for the transfer of information enables the efficient use of existing knowledge and available skills. In this way, challenges in the use of recyclates can be addressed through data-based approaches by depicting the status quo of the material, providing security for material information and requirements, supporting the exchange between customers and suppliers, and enabling access to innovations. Cooperations in managed marketplaces promote exchange between companies, minimize risks and generate network effects. Modern approaches such as digital database systems or artificial intelligence provide answers to the challenges of data use. Circular business models become economically possible based on mutual trust. In practice, the digital mapping of product cycles is currently only incomplete. Reasons include a lack of data availability, a lack of interoperability or a poor understanding of the relationships. Companies are also confronted with the simultaneous nature of many technological developments in the context of digitization. An efficient circular economy is based on material flows that are aligned in the upstream stages of the value chain in such a way that plastic recyclates can ultimately be used in high-quality applications. This is only possible reliably if the necessary information is available along the entire value chain.