In linear economy, products are not manufactured, used, disposed of, and recycled in a sustainable way. This is especially true for plastic products, which are not treated as the valuable resources they can be at the end of their useful lives.

Although less associated with the chemical industry or the circular economy, design plays a key role in enabling circularity through various means. It offers a huge opportunity for providers of sustainable and high-performance materials like Covestro to bring in their expertise.

“The design phase determines a large part of a product’s environmental impact: From the choice of materials to repairability, from a long and useful product life to recyclability. We therefore can’t understate the topic of design when we want to become fully circular,” explains Dr. Christopher Stillings, Head of Color & Design at the Business Entity Engineering Plastics within Covestro. “As materials experts early in the value chain, we at Covestro sit in the sweet spot to consult our customers and partners on how to use circular design principles when conceiving a product. We want to systematically collaborate with designers to make use of that.”