Circular Materials and Circular Design—Review on Challenges Towards Sustainable Manufacturing and Recycling

The selection and engineering of materials is a critical component towards the development of a circular economy model. The redesign of both consumer commodity goods and advanced products may not only require engineering feats in terms of advanced structures but also the implementation of safer and more facile to recycle materials. Although such endeavours include the engineering of goods generated from clever components assemblies, easier to dismantle and separate, new avenues to move beyond planned obsolescence towards triggered obsolescence, whereby materials may degrade on command, is required. Circular Materials must be designed to enable complete recycling of materials and novel synthesis strategies free from toxic precursors or by-products to regenerate raw materials. Circular materials shall therefore be processed first at the local level for local needs. Key supply-chain challenges arising from the COVID-19 lockdowns have further stressed the relevance of this issue and the need to have develop well dispatched geographically manufacturing hubs. Changes towards Circular Materials considerations will depend on the development of repurposing and recycling platforms as well as from the rebirth of delocalized manufacturing capabilities. This chapter will present current solutions to develop sustainable materials engineering strategies and focus on greener fabrication and recycling routes. Focus on smarter designs and life-cycle analysis will reflect on how Circular Design of materials may contribute to the Circular Economy.