Circular Economy For Dummies

Chapter 11

Analyzing Material Lifecycle Processes

IN THIS CHAPTER

Exploring material lifecycle processes

Recognizing the improvement opportunities within lifecycle processes

Investigating technical and biological lifecycle processes can be optimized

Material choices play a fundamental role in designing for a circular economy. By choosing only materials that flow through a circular lifecycle, not only can you ensure safety for both humans and the environment, but you also make sure that the materials used to make your products can be reused without causing waste or toxicity. The good news is that a wide palette of such materials exists.

An important consideration when it comes to selecting circular materials is determining where they come from — how they’re sourced, in other words. (The technical term for this process is feedstock selection.) Because of the possible negative impact on the environment and local communities from raw material extraction, the preferred feedstock selection method should be to recycle and reuse materials while also relying on renewable resources.

If your material is part of a technical cycle — material that cannot be broken down and returned to the earth ...