Technical Standards for a Circular Economy (Download)

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A hot buzzword these days is “sustainability,” followed by the closely related “circular economy.”  The European Union continues to push legislation on these fronts while the U.S. seems intent on ignoring or opposing those directions. But unlike the ages-old “circular” constant, pi, our true needs for guidance to achieve environmental sustainability in today’s world are undeniable and growing.   

Fortunately, technical standards are available to help. Here we introduce several useful ways to enable designing longer-life products in the first place, then optimize material recovery to achieve closed-loop reuse of valuable materials when products inevitably reach the end of life.