QUESTION: Circular economy: how to design a product for recycling and repair?

The transition to the principles of circular economy requires a fundamental revision of approaches to creating goods already at the design stage. To ensure a product can be easily recycled and repaired in the future, one should start with basic and proven solutions that help reduce excessive consumption. The main task of developers is to increase the lifecycle of things, embedding the potential for multiple uses in them, and to ensure efficient separate waste collection where it actually functions at the infrastructure level.

The design of durable and repairable products relies on the engineering principles of modularity and versatility. To successfully implement these ideas in practice, designers and engineers need to follow certain rules during the development of new collections.

The introduction of these principles significantly reduces the volume of waste sent to landfills and lowers the burden on natural ecosystems. Companies that take care of the circularity of their products in advance gain an advantage amid tightening environmental regulations and growing consumer awareness. Ultimately, circular design becomes a powerful tool for reducing product costs in the long term by re-engaging valuable resources into the production cycle.