Metals play a key enabling role for climate protection technologies such as electro mobility, the hydrogen economy, solar and wind power plants, and also for digitalization and electronic products. Accordingly, it is necessary to make their use along the entire metals and products lifecycle much more resource-efficient than before. Closed metal cycles contribute to this by securing relevant parts of the raw material supply for high-tech products and by reducing CO2-emissions in their production at the same time. Circular economy (CE) has therefore rightfully become an important topic for industrial policy and economic strategies. Recycling, i.e., the continued loop-closing by physically (re)using recycled materials within the economy, is one of the leverage points, together with other CE strategies such as longevity, intensity of use, and a sharing economy. But how to set-up in practise well-functioning loops for complex metal bearing products such as vehicles, electronic devices or batteries? Is it sufficient to develop e.g. powerful recycling processes, to show a high recycled content in a product, or to claim design for recycling or high recycling rates? The presentation will briefly summarise the basic laws of metals recycling and provide a critical view on sometimes too simplistic CE approaches, which in practise do not fit the purpose. In conclusion, setting up a true circular economy for complex products means real efforts for all involved stakeholders. It requires fundamental changes in the way we develop, design, produce, distribute, use, monitor and recycle products.