Design for Recycling

Design for recycling would, at first sight, seem to be an unproblematic idea, even if its specific content were in need of elaboration. It implies that manufactured objects are designed in such a manner that once they finish their period of active use and have “worn out,” they can either wholly or in terms of their constituent components be remade into other useful products. However, both of the terms design and recycling can be defined in multiple ways. Depending on which definition of each is adopted, the idea of what constitutes “design for recycling” becomes a much broader one. Added to this are questions concerning the durability of products, what constitutes their obsolescence, the nature of the social networks into which designed products are embedded, ...