The concept of the circular economy (CE) is receiving encouraging attention among scholars and practitioners, as a convenient solution to move away from the linear economy concept without neglecting the goals of sustainable development. The main goals of the CE are the closing of resource loops and the keeping of resources in the system for as long as possible at the highest utility level. However, as a result of the lack of internationally accepted definitions of the CE and several unsolved barriers, an excessive and inconsistent number of different CE applications exist. Most fields are mainly focusing on making a linear system circular instead of applying the CE principles in a holistic way. This paper presents a strategy to close the mentioned inconsistency gap, by contrasting currently discussed CE barriers and goals and thereof deriving two areas with a need for action (1. identifying the needed collection, sorting, and recovery infrastructure, and 2. developing circular product design guidelines). The strategy itself consists of connecting these two areas through an improved information exchange between the end-of-life (EOL) and beginning-of-life (BOL) of products. The result is CE design guidelines which are in accordance with the available or needed collection, sorting, and recovery infrastructure. The proposed strategy presents an innovative solution to apply CE principles in a holistic manner, based on EOL-driven product design.

MDPI Energies

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention as an indispensable renewal of linear economy without neglecting sustainable development goals. Closing resource loops and keeping resources in the system at the highest level of use for as long as possible are cited as the main goals of CE. However, due to missing information exchange, the lack of consistency between the existing end-of-life (EOL) infrastructure and the respective product designs hinders a successful circularity of resources. This research presents a method to collect, process, and apply EOL process data to provide the beginning-of-life (BOL) with important EOL-knowledge through a CE-adapted product design assessment. EOL-data is collected using a Circular Value Stream Mapping (C-VSM), EOL-information is processed using a digital state flow representation, and EOL-knowledge is applied by providing a decision-support tool for product designers in the context of a PET bottle case study in Luxembourg. The goal is to anticipate a circular flow of resources by reflectively aligning product design with the relevant EOL infrastructure. In contrast to the linear economy, the developed method makes it possible to consider not only the requirements of users but also the actual end users, the EOL process chains, when designing products.

Journal of Cleaner Production