But a growing movement now throws recycling on its head: circular design.
They showcase modularity, upcycling, and the sharing economy.
An example isGerrard Streetheadphones.
Their modular design allows 85% of components to be reused.
The use of durable, standardized designs, means the use of fewer virgin materials to create new headphones.
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Further, the subscription model allows Gerrard Street to recover and recycleheadphones at the end of their life.
When you think of your carbon footprint, you probably dont think of the ink in your pens.
However, conventional ink-making relies on carbon black as a raw material, making it dependent on fossil fuels.
Graviky Labshas found a way to upcycle the carbon pollution of industrial companies.
Their carbon capture tech retrofits onto generator exhausts and small chimney stacks to capture carbon pollution.
Then, through a proprietary process, Graviky Labs turns these particles into a high-grade pigment.
This is used to create Air-Ink: hydrated, industrial-grade pigments and inks.
This reduces the cost that industrial companies would otherwise spend paying for carbon pollution removal.
Upcycling raw materials further reduces the printing industrys reliance on fossil fuels.
Famous examples that have entered our daily lives include Airbnb, Uber, and WeWork.
But what about sharing farm equipment?
Farming has grown increasingly industrialized in recent years.
Interested in learning more about circular design in practice?
Check out the complete list of speakershere.
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin.
