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Understanding social movement structures is important for political decision-makers to enable them to recognise the various motivating factors behind these movements. The Fridays for Future movement characterises a political group that has a majority of young people, frequently using social media to organise actions. By conducting a social network analysis on hashtags, this study contributes to the understanding of the global Fridays for Future movement. Particularly, we focus on the use and connection of hashtags on Instagram. We collected 59,112 posts tagged with #fridaysforfuture and analysed 91,172 hashtags used therein. Subsequently, the 140 most used hashtags were divided into 11 clusters, which provide not only information about the organisation of the social movement via social media, but also insights into lifestyle-related aspects. The clusters include the topics: climate; nutrition, lifestyle and health; memes; cycling; art; sustainable consumption and the Earth Day. The article shows that the motives of the Fridays for Future movement are broad. We can demonstrate that Fridays for Future is connected to other social movements and gain insights into the everyday life of the Fridays for Future stakeholders.

Several EU countries discuss introducing deposit systems for single-use bottles to mitigate pollution. However, as an analysis of the German experiences indicates, the introduction of a deposit on single-use beverage containers might unintendedly compromise the endeavor to implement a circular economy. Such unintended effects need to be considered to enable the implementation of a circular economy that prioritizes reduction and reuse compared to recycling.High levels of environmental pollution and low recycling rates have triggered a debate on deposit return systems for single-use beverage containers (BCs) within the European Union. In 2003, Germany statutorily implemented a deposit for single-use BCs, which operates alongside a historically grown deposit system for multi-use bottles. The long-standing German practice can be used as a source of relevant experiences. These experiences show that the introduction of a single-use deposit is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it caused an increase in return and recycling rates of single-use BCs. On the other hand, there were unintended effects on the long-standing multi-use system and, thus, on the endeavor to implement a circular economy where reduction and reuse are prioritized rather than recycling. It seems that the introduction of a single-use deposit system promotes a narrow mode of thinking and a focus on recycling, which hinders the revitalization of multi-use BC systems. The EU’s debate on single-use deposit lacks critical consideration of such unintended effects. The discussion of the German experiences might help to avoid unintended effects that hinder the establishment of a circular economy.