The circular economy focuses on a business model that gives incentives to reusing materials and products instead of digging out new resources from the Earth when this can be avoided.
A circular economy is an economic system that reduces waste and pollution by keeping resources in use for as long as possible. This includes designing for reuse, repair, durability, recycling and using renewable materials and energy.
Circular economies are the key to sustainability and designing a better world. Circular economies are systems that heal or at least don’t actively harm the ecosystem. A circular economy has renewable energy, products free of plastic or other non-renewable materials, and a means of disposal. This disposal method should then generate new resources, like how composting creates new naturally fertilized soil for new crops.
This model doesn’t rely on unsustainable practices like deforestation or strip mining.
Like many complex, large-scale solutions, a circular economy requires designers. Circular designs involve the creation of products and services that support and create a circular economy.
It entails designing durable, repairable, reusable, and recyclable products. Designers consider a product's lifecycle, from raw material to distribution, use, reuse, and disposal. A circular design product or service aims to create a positive environmental and social impact at every stage.
Circular designs go hand in hand with the principles of the circular economy. The product's lifecycle should be sustainable, from manufacturing to disposal.
The circular economy requires circular design. The three principles of circular design are:
Eliminate waste and pollution, including toxic substances that harm the soil and water and reduce emissions. Design plays a key role here. Almost every product generates waste, and so we need to redesign everything.
Circulate products and materials at their highest value for as long as possible. For example, we can build machines to last a long time and be dismantlable so their parts can be repaired easily and reused in new products. They should be recyclable so that no more resources are mined from the earth.
Regenerate natural systems by returning natural resources to the earth. For example, food waste can help regenerate farmlands.
The circular economy butterfly diagram by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation illustrates how we can minimize waste using both renewable and non-renewable materials.
© Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Fair Use
Creating a circular economy may feel almost impossible. Yet, it’s important to remember that lasting change doesn’t happen in a single day. Designers and professionals from all backgrounds must work together to reform our economy in bits and pieces. Only then can we have a fair and truly sustainable economy for countless generations.
Could you even take the next step towards creating a circular economy today? Or let’s phrase this differently. How could you take the next little step today? It may sound bold, but we can only make a difference by taking small steps towards our goals every single day.
The father of User Experience, Don Norman, reminds us to take small steps towards designing a circular economy and circular designs. If you’re a user experience designer, you can in fact get started today. Learn which next steps you can take and how you can integrate your design knowledge and skills in designing a circular economy by taking the course Design For a Better World with Don Norman.
For more on circular economies, take our course: Design For a Better World with Don Norman.
Norman, Donald A. Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered. Cambridge, MA, MA: The MIT Press, 2023.
Read more articles and essays by Don Norman on JND.org.
For a visual explanation of the circular economy, see The butterfly diagram: visualizing the circular economy.
Here’s the entire UX literature on a Circular Economy by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
