Increasing the recycling level in an enterprise, reducing the use of scarce resources, diminishing both the emissions of carbon dioxide and the consumption of energy and raw materials in the production processes are the main advantages of the design for recycling. That increasingly popular solution demonstrates that the appropriate waste management starts as early as in the phase of product design.

In accordance with the idea of the sustainable development and the vision of the circular economy, which is being realized by the European Union, the waste is treated as material out of which new products may be manufactured. Directive no. 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council indicates the prevention from producing waste as the first stage in the hierarchy of the manners of dealing with waste. One of its important elements is the design for recycling.

“The raw materials which we use in the production processes determine to what extent, after the end of the first lifecycle of the product, WE LET THEM LIVE in other products,” says Piotr Bruździak, Sales and Marketing Director at Stena Recycling. ”The entrepreneurs themselves attach greater importance to the design for recycling. It is also reflected in the programmes and strategies of the European Union. That solution creates new possibilities in realization of the sustainable development idea and the circular economy, simultaneously bringing notable business benefits for the companies.”

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The design for recycling aims at obtaining the highest possible recycling rate after the end of the first lifecycle of the products, taking into account the processing of the materials in a safe and environment-friendly manner. The product will be subject to an analysis regarding the raw materials out of which it is or will be manufactured, the manner of applying them, the possibilities of the subsequent separation of the particular materials from one another and of their further recycling. In the analysis possible improvements will be indicated, the implementation of which will mean not only greater recycling possibilities, but also business benefits. The design for recycling may not only increase the recycling rate with regard to the particular product, but it may also contribute to designing future products better. The aim of such actions is to carry out the circular economy, in which the recycling of the products is possible in 100 percent. The design for recycling plays an important role in that transformation. That solution is also used more and more willingly by the companies, as they see in it the possibilities of taking actions in favour of the sustainable development and of building their competitive advantage.

“The responsible waste management is a complex and multi-stage process,” says Piotr Bruździak. “Its first phase is the designing of products, because it is exactly then when the decisions are taken, determining to what extent we will be able to use the materials contained in that product in the future.”