Rethinking Waste: Smart Ways to Reuse and Rebuild
By Daniel Vlahek
Article Summary
- The circular economy offers a viable solution to unsustainable waste practices. Traditional waste management systems are nearing capacity, but circular economy models - like reuse, repair, and remanufacturing - extend product lifespans and reduce environmental impact.
- Repurposing materials adds value and reduces resource strain. Industries like construction and mining are creatively repurposing items such as shipping containers and machinery parts, reducing both cost and environmental impact while enhancing product utility.
- Shifting from planned obsolescence to responsible ownership is essential. Consumers, businesses, and policymakers are pushing back against short-lived products, advocating for the right to repair and sustainable design to improve longevity and reduce waste.
One of the things that most people rarely consider is how much of their waste is repurposable.
Figures, really.
You see, when modern waste management systems were designed, ‘rubbish’ would be collected and transported away to avoid becoming an eyesore (‘out of sight, out of mind’, as they say).
But that is now changing rather quickly.
Humans have created more waste in the past 40 years than in all of human history. Environmental problems are increasingly intersecting with human life, and many are beginning to exhibit adverse social and economic outcomes.
Pictures of waste and debris floating in our oceans, electronics being dumped in our wilderness, or animals full of plastic are beginning to filter through social media and news publications.
Waste infrastructure is also reaching its limits across many countries. In the state of NSW, Australia, reports state that many landfill sites are projected to be at capacity in five years.
Waste, as it is currently managed, doesn’t have to be this way. And as we are coming to find out, there are more sensible ways of doing business.
Resource sustainability and management have been discussed since the 1970s, with early schools of thought highlighting an interdependence on our natural environment.
Thinkers like Walter Stahl championed the concept of a ‘performance economy’, extending the use of materials through reuse, repair, and remanufacturing processes.
Other schools of thought include ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ (produced by William McDonough and Michael Braungart), ‘Biomimicry’ by Janine Benyus, and ‘Regenerative Design’ by John T. Lyle, which all highlight working ‘with nature’.
These ideas have given way to the framework now known as the Circular Economy.
The Ellen Macarthur Foundation has modernised these key concepts and ideas for more than a decade, highlighted by its Butterfly Diagram: a cascading set of ‘technical’ and ‘biological’ material flow loops that keep materials and products in use for extended periods rather than being readily discarded.
The beauty of the circular economy is that it challenges us to find interesting ways of repurposing goods for different uses, typically aided through cross-collaboration.
And you don’t have to look far for live examples.
With over 65 million units currently available, the humble shipping container is an integral piece of infrastructure - from Maersk to Nippon Yusen - it is used worldwide by all shipping companies.
Yet only 17 million are currently in use. So, what about the rest?
Naturally, this has been reclaimed by the built sector and transformed into community assets, ranging from entire shopping centres like Box Park in London to residential homes.
One particular development is Carroll House in Brooklyn, NY.
Designed with the area’s industrial heritage, yet evolving landscape in mind, LOT-EK have repurposed 15 steel shipping containers to create unique family residences.
Studio co-founder and designer Ada Tolla explains that “we respond creatively to what humanity has pushed aside.”
It’s a key goal of the circular economy: repurposed products typically undergo ‘value enhancement’ where additional functionality, aesthetic appeal (or both) is added to maximise the intrinsic value of the new product.
Australia’s mining industry in Perth is an industry that relies on this process.
With the sector being heavily equipment-dependent, costs skyrocket when purchasing new equipment, let alone trying to address resource-specific environmental goals as part of their net-zero ambitions.
Its ties with SKF Group have helped limit the purchase of new products through SKF’s bearing remanufacturing program. Equipment cores are inspected, disassembled, surface-treated, reassembled and tested for tolerance to the company's strict specifications.
“The process of manufacturing a new bearing takes 100 steps, remanufacturing only takes 10. It's only 50% of the cost, yet turnaround for a bearing can be as little as 24 hours if we can get access quickly.”
Fundamentally, CE aims to address our ‘linear economies’ reliance on continuous sales, which has bred the practice of planned obsolescence - a business strategy in which the process of being ‘obsolete’ is built into the product from its conception.
Think about your most recent phone purchase - chances are, you couldn’t replace the battery, access internal components due to proprietary screws, or avoid software updates that made your device feel outdated.
We are now seeing a growing movement in which consumers are trying to be responsible product owners by championing their right to repair, improving product longevity, and reducing material consumption.
“From a climate perspective…mobile phones should last 200 years. By repairing, we extend the useful life of objects, and this is key…to a circular economy,” as Camila Naveira from Reparar states.
Planned obsolescence doesn’t just apply to our handheld devices. It has also been reported across industries, including fashion, household appliances, and furniture.
The latter are often designed with inferior materials that are prone to wear and tear or are readily discarded - despite being of good quality - as the client has no more use for them.
Rype Office from the UK saw this as an opportunity, noting that 300 tonnes of office furniture were being sent to landfill each year, including the enormous amount of greenhouse gases involved in its development.
“Typically a five-year tenancy involves buying all new furniture…and at the end of that tenancy, they throw that all away and then again, buy furniture from virgin resources,” Managing Director Grey Lavery says.
“How can we change things to find better ways of doing things that are incredibly sensible, but also have social environmental benefits almost as a side effect sometimes?”
Whilst the gap between action and knowledge is currently widening - the Circularity Gap Report 2025 showing global circularity falling from 7.2% to 6.9% - it has not stymied the growing awareness among individuals, organisations, and policymakers.
Recently, this movement has notched some impressive wins, from several legislation bills passed in the US to the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) coming into force to improve the environmental sustainability of products on the EU market.
It's a critical shift in a system driven by consumerism as it helps us rethink how we currently consume our products.
Or better yet, learn their intrinsic value so that we may treat them with respect and care in a resource-depleting world.