Circular Economy
56 curated listings — companies, articles, research, and people working on Circular Economy.
Explore Circular Economy interactively →Circular Economy
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
- CD Original Article · Skander Garroum · 8/21/2023The Drop Conference Special -Today we are looking at the circular economy : Rethink, Reduce, Recycle.
- CD Original Article · Cristina Fonseca · 03/24/2024After seeing an ad for a sustainable bank, my boyfriend and I decided to create a game: to count how many times we'd spot words like "Eco-friendly," "Green," "Natural," "Organic," "Recyclable," or "100% Sustainable" on our way to the supermarket and inside. We took the long route (15 minutes on a main street) and soon we hit a…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/03/2025With increasing pressure on businesses to address both environmental and economic challenges, adopting circular business models has become essential for long-term success. This paper offers a practical guide for companies looking to transition from linear to circular operations, focusing on how to maintain profitability while transforming their business. Starting a circular business can be…
- CD Original Article · Johann Boedecker and Ben Crispin · 11/09/2023The circular economy emphasizes sharing, reusing, and recycling to extend product longevity, with principles like "Rethink" for greener inception, "Reduce" for minimizing waste, and "Recycle" for advanced material management. We asked around and our friends at Pentatonic responded. Pentatonic is a climate-tech platform accelerating circularity at scale in the…
- CD Original Article · Matt Granger · 06/24/2025For the past 12 years I have been working with brands to introduce new physical products to the market. Aside from the specific product type ISO standards and more broad overarching regulations (like the GPSR, REACH and RoHS), how that product is brought to market has been relatively straightforward with little scrutiny. That was until the introduction of the EU’s Green Deal. The game has now…
Rethink
- CD Original Article · Jay Bodenhausen · 04/11/2024Circular Design champions sustainability, promoting the efficient use of resources through repair, reuse, and recycling. Despite its clear benefits, the question remains: why hasn't it been adopted more widely? The reluctance to shift from traditional, consumption-based practices towards a circular economy reflects the challenges seen in digital transformations. Both movements struggle…
- CD Original Article · Vianney Brandicourt · 03/20/2024A long thought experiment on refurbishment and buyback, complete with data analysis and wireframes, from Vianney, a product leader and founder with experience from Google, Spotify to his own companies. In February 2024, I had the pleasure of attending a thought-provoking fireside chat with Daniel Haltia, the Global Circular Strategy Leader at IKEA through my participation in Climate Drift, a…
- CD Original Article · Tracy Cheung · 09/30/2024A Roadmap for Sustainability in AI. In this deep dive, we're looking at: The current state of AI sustainability; Challenges AI companies face in going green; Finding comparables: How tech giants are benchmarking their sustainability efforts; The economic upside of sustainable AI; Solutions to rein in AI's carbon footprint; A sustainability roadmap for AI companies. This is a tactical…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/03/2025Our current system was designed to incentivise more and more consumption. Countries and governments around the world use GDP as a measurement for success. GDP measures market output, which is the monetary value of goods/services produced in an economy during a given period. Businesses are measured by how well they do in a stock market, resulting in volatile short-term thinking. Consumers spend…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/03/2025With increasing pressure on businesses to address both environmental and economic challenges, adopting circular business models has become essential for long-term success. This paper offers a practical guide for companies looking to transition from linear to circular operations, focusing on how to maintain profitability while transforming their business. Starting a circular business can be…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/02/2025We consume a lot more per person and our population has grown exponentially over time, thanks to our intelligence and creativity in maximising resources. Our government’s overall success is measured by the monetary value of goods produced, encouraging people to buy more. This leads us to an ecological overshoot as we realised our resources are finite. Human and consumptions are inseparable.…
- CD Original Article · Christopher Moken · 05/29/2026Picture this: a lone Texan staring at a mountain of trashed mattresses and thinking, “I can turn that landfill into a supply chain.” Ten years later, Christopher is still flipping waste streams into revenue, but he’s hit the same brick wall in every zip code: cities that can’t coordinate their own players. So today he shows us how to bulldoze that wall and why $26 million is the cheapest…
- CD Original Article · Johann Boedecker & Katie Hoffman · 05/29/2026One of the biggest questions as last year came to a close was: “Is Climate Tech is dead?” As global elections hand power to climate skeptics and tariffs heat up, the question isn’t whether climate companies can survive—it’s how they can adapt. Today, Johann, a climate founder at Pentatonic, and Katie, an climate investor at SOSV, tackle a core question in our Climate Recap: What does the rise…
Rethink › New Materials
- CD Original Article · Zoei Benzon · 12/04/2024Diving into a crucial yet often overlooked topic in the climate space: synthetic rubber. From car tires to climbing shoes, it’s a material embedded in our everyday lives—but its environmental impact is massive. We’ll break down the basics of synthetic rubber production, examine its role in industries like transportation and outdoor recreation, and navigate the environmental trade-offs that…
- CD Original Article · Nghi Lam · 04/16/2024How are advancements in material science driving the shift towards a circular economy?
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026Part Three - Materials Discovery. in Part 3, Mark will explore one of the frontier areas of climate innovation: materials discovery. Removing plastics from the waste stream entirely is one of the most effective ways to reduce pollution. But with so many plastic alternatives either too expensive, not durable enough, or hard to find, how can we design better materials?
Rethink › New Materials › Plastic Alternatives
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
Recycle
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026In Part 4 of our Plastics & AI series, we’re diving into one of the most debated topics in the circular economy: plastic recycling. Recycling has long been touted as the solution to our plastic problem, but is it really the broken promise of the linear economy? Perhaps. But I believe there’s still room to fix it, especially by leveraging new technologies to pull plastics out of the waste…
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026Part Three - Materials Discovery. in Part 3, Mark will explore one of the frontier areas of climate innovation: materials discovery. Removing plastics from the waste stream entirely is one of the most effective ways to reduce pollution. But with so many plastic alternatives either too expensive, not durable enough, or hard to find, how can we design better materials?
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026Plastic pollution is a ticking time bomb, and we're not defusing it fast enough. The numbers are staggering: less than 5% of plastics are recycled in the U.S., and even Sweden, a global recycling leader, manages only 11.8%. The rest? It ends up in our oceans, our landfills, and ultimately in our bodies. We are drowning in plastic, and the solutions we've been relying on—recycling,…
Recycle › Recycling
- CD Original Article · Sinéad Moodie · 03/18/2024In this deep dive Sinéad Moodie is looking into how technology is supporting recycling, and highlights different solutions and companies.
- CD Original Article · Laura Miller · 02/24/2025Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s hiding in plain sight but has massive implications for both businesses and the environment: packaging waste. Every day, the European Union generates 228,000 tonnes of packaging waste, about the weight of 23 Eiffel Towers. And while recycling exists, a huge amount of packaging material still gets burned, buried, or lost in the environment. But here’s the…
Recycle › Recycling › Consumer Facing Recycling
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
- CD Original Article · Vianney Brandicourt · 03/20/2024A long thought experiment on refurbishment and buyback, complete with data analysis and wireframes, from Vianney, a product leader and founder with experience from Google, Spotify to his own companies. In February 2024, I had the pleasure of attending a thought-provoking fireside chat with Daniel Haltia, the Global Circular Strategy Leader at IKEA through my participation in Climate Drift, a…
- CD Original Article · Matt Granger · 06/24/2025For the past 12 years I have been working with brands to introduce new physical products to the market. Aside from the specific product type ISO standards and more broad overarching regulations (like the GPSR, REACH and RoHS), how that product is brought to market has been relatively straightforward with little scrutiny. That was until the introduction of the EU’s Green Deal. The game has now…
- CD Original Article · Laura van Meer · 05/22/2026What’s more scalable: an AI that can send 10,000 emails per hour, or one person who’s so genuinely excited about what you’re doing that they can’t help but tell their friends? If you said the AI, congrats, you’re technically correct and also missing the entire point. We’re living through the weirdest paradox: the more we automate connection, the more valuable actual connection becomes. So we…
- CD Original Article · Vianney Brandicourt · 03/20/2024A long thought experiment on refurbishment and buyback, complete with data analysis and wireframes, from Vianney, a product leader and founder with experience from Google, Spotify to his own companies. In February 2024, I had the pleasure of attending a thought-provoking fireside chat with Daniel Haltia, the Global Circular Strategy Leader at IKEA through my participation in Climate Drift, a…
Recycle › Recycling › Battery recycling
- CD Original Article · Harrison Tramposch · 08/24/2024Batteries are becoming a key player in the energy transition, with demand growing exponentially as various sectors adopt battery technology. This domino effect is driving down global fossil fuel demand, as highlighted in RMI’s recent report. From consumer electronics to electric vehicles, batteries are climbing S-curves of adoption, with sales doubling every two to three years. Battery prices…
Recycle › Recycling › Plastics recycling
- CD Original Article · Sinéad Moodie · 03/18/2024In this deep dive Sinéad Moodie is looking into how technology is supporting recycling, and highlights different solutions and companies.
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 09/04/2024In Part 1, we examined the staggering scale of the plastic waste crisis and how AI has the potential to revolutionize our approach to tackling it. Today, in Part 2, we shift our focus to the critical role of reverse logistics—how we can use AI to streamline the return, repair, and reuse of products. The reality is we’ve perfected the art of getting products into consumers’ hands, but we’ve…
Recycle › Recycling › Recycling other materials
- CD Original Article · Matt Granger · 07/29/2025Aluminium is a metal that doesn’t rust and allows engineers to create relatively lightweight structures. Alongside that, it has impressive accompanying environmental statistics such as being infinitely recyclable with 75% of all Aluminium ever produced still in circulation. With a resume like that, it's easy to see why it has become ubiquitous in daily life with a significant chunk of…
Recycle › Waste Management
- CD Original Article · Sinéad Moodie · 03/18/2024In this deep dive Sinéad Moodie is looking into how technology is supporting recycling, and highlights different solutions and companies.
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026Plastic pollution is a ticking time bomb, and we're not defusing it fast enough. The numbers are staggering: less than 5% of plastics are recycled in the U.S., and even Sweden, a global recycling leader, manages only 11.8%. The rest? It ends up in our oceans, our landfills, and ultimately in our bodies. We are drowning in plastic, and the solutions we've been relying on—recycling,…
Recycle › Waste Management › Waste traceability & analytics
- CD Original Article · Aaron Sams · 03/07/2024Diving into food waste and its solutions.
- CD Original Article · Maureen Traynor · 10/15/2024food waste. It's a critical issue that's often overlooked but has massive implications for our climate and resources. Did you know that about 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste? That's not just a waste of food, but also of water, energy, and land used to produce it. Plus, it's a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Diving into the challenges in this…
Reduce
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/03/2025Our current system was designed to incentivise more and more consumption. Countries and governments around the world use GDP as a measurement for success. GDP measures market output, which is the monetary value of goods/services produced in an economy during a given period. Businesses are measured by how well they do in a stock market, resulting in volatile short-term thinking. Consumers spend…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/02/2025We consume a lot more per person and our population has grown exponentially over time, thanks to our intelligence and creativity in maximising resources. Our government’s overall success is measured by the monetary value of goods produced, encouraging people to buy more. This leads us to an ecological overshoot as we realised our resources are finite. Human and consumptions are inseparable.…
Reduce › Consumer Facing
- CD Original Article · Jay Bodenhausen · 04/11/2024Circular Design champions sustainability, promoting the efficient use of resources through repair, reuse, and recycling. Despite its clear benefits, the question remains: why hasn't it been adopted more widely? The reluctance to shift from traditional, consumption-based practices towards a circular economy reflects the challenges seen in digital transformations. Both movements struggle…
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/03/2025Our current system was designed to incentivise more and more consumption. Countries and governments around the world use GDP as a measurement for success. GDP measures market output, which is the monetary value of goods/services produced in an economy during a given period. Businesses are measured by how well they do in a stock market, resulting in volatile short-term thinking. Consumers spend…
- CD Original Article · Nadia Setiabudi · 10/02/2025We consume a lot more per person and our population has grown exponentially over time, thanks to our intelligence and creativity in maximising resources. Our government’s overall success is measured by the monetary value of goods produced, encouraging people to buy more. This leads us to an ecological overshoot as we realised our resources are finite. Human and consumptions are inseparable.…
Reduce › Consumer Facing › Repair
- CD Original Article · Molly Schneider · 05/29/2026Repair isn’t just an ethical choice, it’s a high-leverage business model hiding in your returns bin. Driftie Molly, circularity strategist, field operator, and supply chain expert, makes the business case for repair. Not recycling. Not offsets. Not wishful sustainability theater. Repair. She’s worked with everyone from Nespresso and Google to local farmers and tailors across 20+ countries.…
Reduce › Packaging
- CD Original Article · Laura Miller · 02/24/2025Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s hiding in plain sight but has massive implications for both businesses and the environment: packaging waste. Every day, the European Union generates 228,000 tonnes of packaging waste, about the weight of 23 Eiffel Towers. And while recycling exists, a huge amount of packaging material still gets burned, buried, or lost in the environment. But here’s the…
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
Re-use
- CD Original Article · Laura Miller · 02/24/2025Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s hiding in plain sight but has massive implications for both businesses and the environment: packaging waste. Every day, the European Union generates 228,000 tonnes of packaging waste, about the weight of 23 Eiffel Towers. And while recycling exists, a huge amount of packaging material still gets burned, buried, or lost in the environment. But here’s the…
- CD Original Article · Maura White · 01/20/2025Today Maura is taking a very deep look into the beauty industry. With growing consumer demand for eco-friendly options and brands scrambling to stay ahead, it's not just about packaging—it's about reshaping the entire system and products. But is the industry really ready for change? From the challenges with recycling systems to the complexities of carbon neutrality, we’ll break down…
- CD Original Article · Nghi Lam · 04/16/2024How are advancements in material science driving the shift towards a circular economy?
- CD Original Article · Matt Granger · 06/24/2025For the past 12 years I have been working with brands to introduce new physical products to the market. Aside from the specific product type ISO standards and more broad overarching regulations (like the GPSR, REACH and RoHS), how that product is brought to market has been relatively straightforward with little scrutiny. That was until the introduction of the EU’s Green Deal. The game has now…
- CD Original Article · Kaela Lansinger · 05/29/2026We like to zoom out to 30,000 feet: carbon budgets, industrial policy, electrolyzers the size of shipping containers. But today? We’re going deep into closets, basements, and browser tabs. Kaela, driftie, ops powerhouse and circular economy expert, has stitched together a resale playbook. Not just for fashion brands, but for any company sitting on a pile of stuff that could live twice. In…
- CD Original Article · Mark Lammers · 05/29/2026In Part 2, we shift our focus to the critical role of reverse logistics—how we can use AI to streamline the return, repair, and reuse of products. The reality is we’ve perfected the art of getting products into consumers’ hands, but we’ve utterly failed at getting them back. This is where reverse logistics comes in—handling everything from returns and repairs to recycling and reuse. The…
Re-use › Food waste prevention & recovery
- CD Original Article · Nghi Lam · 04/16/2024How are advancements in material science driving the shift towards a circular economy?
- CD Original Article · Aaron Sams · 03/07/2024Diving into food waste and its solutions.
- CD Original Article · Maureen Traynor · 10/15/2024food waste. It's a critical issue that's often overlooked but has massive implications for our climate and resources. Did you know that about 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste? That's not just a waste of food, but also of water, energy, and land used to produce it. Plus, it's a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Diving into the challenges in this…
- CD Original Article · Nikole Kenney · 02/15/2025Uncover the overlooked solutions, cost-saving hacks, and legislative fixes that can transform the F&B industry. Here’s a stat that might surprise you: U.S. restaurants generate 33 billion pounds (15 billion kg) of food waste every year and only a fraction of it ever sees a compost bin. The rest? Landfills, methane emissions, wasted resources. Globally food waste is responsible for 6% of…
- CD Original Article · Jennie Montano · 02/17/2025Have you thought about ditching your gas furnace or car and electrifying your home, only to be stopped by sticker shock or a maze of choices? If so, you’re not alone. The good news: plenty of homeowners are cracking the code on all-electric, zero-carbon living. Take Jennie Montano, for example. Jennie is a homeowner in Austin, Texas, who recently decided to transform her 1970s bungalow into a…