Circular Economy

The Dutch government has set the goal for the Netherlands to be fully circular by 2050. Not so strange, because the world's supply of raw materials is not infinite. Think for example of all the metals in our electronics. Every year we use up the raw materials that the earth can produce in one year (Earth Overshoot Day). Therefore, it is important to reuse materials. But what exactly does the circular economy mean?

When you develop a product, you add value to a product at every step in the production process. You start with raw materials. Then those become semi-finished products, and finally a product. In a linear economy, the product is used and then the vast majority ends up as waste (TU Delft). This is also called the take-make-waste economy. In a circular economy, the materials are kept in the loop, and there is actually no waste. As a result, you retain the value that adds to a product in the chain.

How best to get started with the circular economy varies greatly from organization to organization. But simply put, it means that there is no more waste, but all materials, semi-finished products and products continue to be used in a valuable way. It is important to take this into account when designing your product. For example, can you design the product without glue connections, so that you can neatly separate all the materials after use. Or can you design products that will last a very long time? And what happens to your product after its first use? Can you design for the second or third user? These are all questions that you can take into account if you want to design in a circular way.