How can you apply circular design principles to your material choices?

1 What are circular materials?

Circular materials are those that can be reused, recycled, or biodegraded at the end of their life cycle, without compromising their quality, performance, or safety. They also have low embodied energy, water, and carbon footprints, meaning they require less resources and emissions to produce, transport, and dispose of. Circular materials can be derived from renewable, recycled, or waste sources, and can be designed to fit into biological or technical cycles. Examples of circular materials include organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, recycled plastic, paper, metal, glass, and bioplastics.

2 How to choose circular materials?

Choosing circular materials involves considering the whole life cycle of your product or service, from the sourcing of raw materials, to the manufacturing, distribution, use, and end-of-life stages. You should aim to select materials that have the lowest environmental impact across all these stages, while also meeting your functional, aesthetic, and budgetary requirements. To help you make informed decisions, you can use tools and frameworks such as the circularity indicators, the material circularity index, the circular design guide, and the material passport.

3 How to evaluate circular materials?

Evaluating circular materials requires assessing their performance and impact on multiple criteria, such as resource efficiency, toxicity, durability, recyclability, biodegradability, and social responsibility. You can use different methods and tools to measure and compare these criteria, such as life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, eco-labels, certifications, and standards. You should also consider the trade-offs and synergies between different criteria, and how they align with your design goals and values.

4 How to compare circular materials?

Comparing circular materials involves weighing the pros and cons of different options, and choosing the one that best fits your design criteria and context. You can use matrices, charts, graphs, or tables to visualize and compare the data and information you have collected from your evaluation methods and tools. You can also use rating systems, scoring methods, or ranking algorithms to assign values and priorities to different criteria, and to calculate the overall circularity score or potential of each material option.

5 How to communicate circular materials?

Communicating circular materials involves informing and engaging your stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, partners, investors, and regulators, about the benefits and challenges of your material choices. You can use storytelling, branding, marketing, education, or advocacy strategies to convey your circular design vision and values, and to highlight the environmental, social, and economic advantages of your material options. You can also use labels, tags, codes, or symbols to provide transparent and credible information about the origin, composition, and end-of-life options of your materials.

6 How to innovate with circular materials?

Innovating with circular materials involves exploring new possibilities and opportunities for creating value and impact with your material choices. You can use design thinking, co-creation, prototyping, or testing methods to generate and validate new ideas and solutions that leverage the circular potential of your materials. You can also collaborate with other designers, makers, researchers, or innovators to share knowledge, insights, and resources, and to create synergies and networks that support circular material innovation.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?