The Circular Economy in a Nutshell

— 03 February 2025


When we think about the circular economy, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a product’s ability to be recycled, or its recycled content. While using waste as a resource is key to moving away from a ‘take, make, waste’ linear economy, the circular economy offers so much more than simply reducing resource use by recycling.

The vision of a circular economy is to balance renewable resource extraction and consumption rates with the rate at which the Earth is able to regenerate. Alongside this, finite resources like metals, plastics and rare earth elements are kept in use indefinitely by creating a cycle of use and reuse in which both inputs, in terms of materials or energy, and outputs, like waste and emissions, are kept to a minimum.

There are three key pillars on which a circular economy is built:

— Eliminate waste and pollution
— Circulate products and materials
— Regenerate natural systems

A circular economy is regenerative by design, running on renewable energy and operating within ecosystem boundaries. The ‘circular’ part refers especially to the circulation of products, retaining maximum value and inputting minimum energy over each lifecycle — repair before you refurbish, refurbish before you remanufacture, remanufacture before you recycle.

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Our collection contains a host of products designed with the circular economy in mind, from products made from waste, to products that have been designed for disassembly and, most importantly, products designed for re-use, offering replacement components to keep them in circulation with the minimum use of resources. At end of life, our products can be returned to us for refurbishment, remanufacture or recycling, so it makes perfect sense for us to design with disassembly in mind, after all, we want to make it easy for the planet as well as for our team.

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By shifting to an economic model that designs out waste and pollution, we can start to slow the tide of waste that flows to landfill and incinerators and stem the pollution of our ecosystems. The key, is to focus on the design stage, preventing waste before it can occur. By designing products that retain their value through a process of maintenance, repair, and refurbishment, we can keep materials in circulation, keeping finite materials, like plastic, in the economy and out of the environment. A shift from doing less harm to the environment, to actively regenerating nature has the potential to slow the pace of both climate breakdown and biodiversity loss and help heal our damaged planet.

 

 

 

Skilfully designed with minimal fixings and no cross contamination of materials, Maluma is truly designed for disassembly, each seat can be separated into its component parts with zero glue and removable covers, making refurbishment at end of life a breeze and ensuring multiple lives in use.

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The Balance range has been developed with a removable cover that uses no glue, making future refurbishment simple and keeping the chair in use over multiple lifecycles.

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This article was originally included in our new publication, Material Intelligence | Design Understanding. 

Read on below to gain an in depth understanding of our products and guiding company and sustainability principles. 

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