Circular Product Design Strategies, Principles, and Guidelines for the Metal Sector

Abstract

The rapid depletion of finite resources used to create short-life products and resource sustainability issues has generated profound global concern. Design in the existing linear economy (LE) has been identified as a major contributor to these problems as well as a crucial component in the transition from the LE to a circular economy (CE). Due to the unique material properties, manufacturing processes, and recycling issues of metals, the metal sector requires specific circular product design strategies (CPDSs), circular product design principles (CPDPs), and circular product design guidelines (CPDGs) to make long-lasting metal products. These metal products are to be designed to enable the circular flow of material resources, particularly aluminium and steel in a CE. There are currently no comprehensive set of CPDSs, CPDPs, and CPDGs for the metal sector to design long-lasting metal products that will enable circular flow of metal resources. This study, a project of the CircularMetal research centre, addresses these concerns with the identification of product design strategies, principles and guidelines from eco-design, mechanical design, and circular product design. These were adopted/adapted and systematised into a comprehensive set of clearly defined CPDSs, CPDPs, and CPDGs that were previously unavailable for the metal sector. They are then clustered around the various product lifecycle phases of the developed Circular Design Strategy Wheel, an adaptation of the Eco-design Strategy Wheel. The circular product design guidelines include aspects such as metal manufacturing processes, robotics, and other processes which enable the design of long-lasting metal products and circular metal resource flow.