Steering plastic management in the circular economy revolution

Plastic pollution has emerged as a critical environmental issue of our era. As governments and the private sector concentrate on plastic pollution, various strategies have been implemented to promote recycling and reduce plastic waste, such as phasing out specific single-use plastics and establishing plastic recycling goals. Nevertheless, plastics remain essential for many products, from mobile phones to cars and washing machines. Thus, incorporating plastics into the circular economy is vital.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation emphasizes the need for a systemic approach that maintains economic value while avoiding plastic waste and pollution. Rethinking plastic production, usage, and reuse is crucial, necessitating a redesign of the system in which plastics are utilized. Companies must make informed decisions about plastic substitution or selection, ensuring that if used, the least amount possible is employed while maintaining functionality.

Designing products and commercial offerings for reliable recovery is critical for businesses using plastic. This involves creating incentives for customers to return the products and incorporating modular design and disassembly instructions to facilitate recovery, reuse, or reprocessing. The circular economy is in its early stages, with only 8.6% of the global economy operating in a circular manner, as reported by the Circularity Gap Report.

Manufacturers can benefit from modular design, which enables mass customization and provides a disassembly guide. The primary objective in a circular economy is prolonging material usage and recovering and reusing as many components as possible. Achieving a fully circular product may be elusive for decades, but moving incrementally towards zero landfill and zero carbon release is the goal.

Designers must adopt new ways of thinking, focusing on recovering plastics if used. Requirements management, material databases, and lifecycle analysis can guide designers in making environmentally responsible choices.

Designing for disassembly and employing techniques such as requirements tracing, and generative design can help engineers develop products with improved recyclability and reduced carbon footprint.

Though progress towards a circular economy for plastics may be slow, incremental improvements contribute to the ultimate goal. The adoption of modular and generative design technologies will accelerate this progress, and every effort to minimize plastic harm should be pursued.