Abstract
Design has been recognised in the literature as a catalyst to move away from the traditional model of take-make-dispose to achieve a more restorative, regenerative and circular economy. As such, for a circular economy to thrive, products need to be designed for closed loops, as well as be adapted to generate revenues. This should not only be at the point of purchase, but also during use, and be supported by low-cost return chains and reprocessing structures, as well as effective policy and regulation. To date, most academic and grey literature on the circular economy has focused primarily on the development of new business models, with some of the latter studies addressing design strategies for a circular economy, specifically in the area of resource cycles and design for product life extension. However, these studies primarily consider a limited spectrum of the technical and biological cycles where materials are recovered and restored and nutrients (e.g., materials, energy, water) are regenerated. This provides little guidance or clarity for designers wishing to design for new circular business models in practice. As such, this paper aims to address this gap by systematically analysing previous literature on Design for Sustainability (DfX) (e.g., design for resource conservation, design for slowing resource loops and whole systems design) and links these approaches to the current literature on circular business models. A conceptual framework is developed for circular economy design strategies. From this conceptual framework, recommendations are made to enable designers to fully consider the holistic implications for design within a circular economy.
Highlights
Designers have a significant responsibility to shape the current status on how products and services are built
Step 1: Identification of the state of the art principles contributing to circular design to enable the development of a revised taxonomy of DfX approaches
Since the topic of environmental design has been well reviewed by scholars, e.g., [10,11,12,13,14], this review focused on the historical evolution of green design to DfX, to develop a new taxonomy of DfX approaches based on previous work by De los Rios and Charnley [15], which is the only classification to date that looks into a full transition from DfX to circular design
Summary
Designers have a significant responsibility to shape the current status on how products and services are built. According to research from the Royal Society for the Encouragment of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) [2], the design of most products is far from being “circular ready”, as they follow the linear “take-make-dispose” model of resource use. Many academic and non-academic discussions have ensued for implementing a different role for design. Terms such as “eco-design”, “green design”, ”design for the environment” and “sustainable design” have emerged, looking for alternative ways to deliver less damage to the environment and sometimes to wider society in general [3,4]. The application of these theories and methods in the development of “less bad consumer products” can have unintended consequences or re-bound effects if not considered from a whole system perspective [5] and result, for example, in the use of scrap, recycled and renewable materials, which cannot be recovered, disassembled or reused [6]
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