Design for and from Recycling: A Circular Ecodesign Approach to Improve the Circular Economy

Jorge Martínez Leal, Stéphane Pompidou, Carole Charbuillet and Nicolas Perry
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Jorge Martínez Leal: Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, I2M Bordeaux, F-33400 Talence Cedex, France
Stéphane Pompidou: Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, I2M Bordeaux, F-33400 Talence Cedex, France
Carole Charbuillet: Arts et Métiers, Institut de Chambéry, F-73375 Le Bourget-du-Lac, France
Nicolas Perry: Arts et Metiers, CNRS, I2M Bordeaux, F-33405 Talence Cedex, France

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-30

Abstract: In the context of a circular economy, one can observe that (i) recycling chains are not adapted enough to the end-of-life products they have to process and that (ii) products are not sufficiently well designed either to integrate at best their target recycling chain. Therefore, a synergy between product designers and recycling-chains stakeholders is lacking, mainly due to their weak communication and the time-lag between the product design phase and its end-of-life treatment. Many Design for Recycling approaches coexist in the literature. However, to fully develop a circular economy, Design from Recycling also has to be taken into account. Thus Re-Cycling , a complete circular design approach, is proposed. First, a design for recycling methodology linking recyclability assessment to product design guidelines is proposed. Then, a design from recycling methodology is developed to assess the convenience of using secondary raw materials in the design phase. The recyclability of a smartphone and the convenience of using recycled materials in a new cycle are both analyzed to demonstrate our proposal. The Fairphone 2 ® and its treatment by the WEEE French takeback scheme are used as a case study.

Keywords: design for recycling; design from recycling; ecodesign; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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