Special Issue "Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Claudio Favi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering and Architecture, Parma University, 43124 Parma, Italy
Interests: engineering design; eco-design; life cycle engineering; product development; design methods; design tools
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Marco Marconi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: eco-design; life cycle assessment; product design; sustainable manufacturing; design tools and methods
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The design and development of products for daily use is changing due to the new constraints derived by the paradigms of sustainability and circular economy. Designers and engineers are called to rethink the way products are conceived, anticipating life cycle and end of life issues in the early phase of design where the degree of freedom to change the product features are higher and the impacts most effective.

Environmental performance has become an important aspect of design together with the other classical design drivers, such as quality, safety, functionality and ergonomics. Eco-design methodologies need to be effective in daily engineering practices, enhancing circular business models by means of product life cycle extension and effective management of closed-loop, end-of-life strategies (i.e., product reuse, product re-manufacturing, and material recycling).

Papers exploring novel eco-design methodologies, and strongly oriented to circular economy and life cycle engineering, are invited. Case studies focusing on the new paradigm of circular economy or its measurement by means of circular indicators (i.e., disassembly, resource demand, LCA, and social engagement) are also welcome.

The papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Claudio Favi
Prof. Marco Marconi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecodesign methods and ecodesigned products
  • design for circular economy
  • design for disassembly
  • product reuse, remanufacturing and recycling
  • product end-of-life management
  • sustainability assessment of products and manufacturing processes
  • life cycle engineering and related topics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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Article
Engineering Design Process of Face Masks Based on Circularity and Life Cycle Assessment in the Constraint of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094948 - 28 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 704
Abstract
Face masks are currently considered key equipment to protect people against the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for such devices is considerable, as is the amount of plastic waste generated after their use (approximately 1.6 million tons/day since the outbreak). Even if the sanitary [...] Read more.
Face masks are currently considered key equipment to protect people against the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for such devices is considerable, as is the amount of plastic waste generated after their use (approximately 1.6 million tons/day since the outbreak). Even if the sanitary emergency must have the maximum priority, environmental concerns require investigation to find possible mitigation solutions. The aim of this work is to develop an eco-design actions guide that supports the design of dedicated masks, in a manner to reduce the negative impacts of these devices on the environment during the pandemic period. Toward this aim, an environmental assessment based on life cycle assessment and circularity assessment (material circularity indicator) of different types of masks have been carried out on (i) a 3D-printed mask with changeable filters, (ii) a surgical mask, (iii) an FFP2 mask with valve, (iv) an FFP2 mask without valve, and (v) a washable mask. Results highlight how reusable masks (i.e., 3D-printed masks and washable masks) are the most sustainable from a life cycle perspective, drastically reducing the environmental impacts in all categories. The outcomes of the analysis provide a framework to derive a set of eco-design guidelines which have been used to design a new device that couples protection requirements against the virus and environmental sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy)
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Article
Circular Economy in Industrial Design Research: A Review
Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10279; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410279 - 09 Dec 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1154
Abstract
In the past decades, industrial design practice and research have focused extensively on how to optimize production and consumption, as a way to prevent negative environmental impacts, such as resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Recently, the “circular economy” concept is increasingly used [...] Read more.
In the past decades, industrial design practice and research have focused extensively on how to optimize production and consumption, as a way to prevent negative environmental impacts, such as resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Recently, the “circular economy” concept is increasingly used to achieve environmental benefits and economic growth simultaneously. Industrial design can contribute to a circular economy by fostering systems changes to achieve durability, optimal reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling of products and materials. Indeed, researchers have examined both the theoretical and practical aspects of how design knowledge can support the transition to a circular economy. However, this body of knowledge has not been systematically analyzed yet. To address this critical gap, this paper poses the following question: How has industrial design research so far contributed to advancing the circular economy knowledge? Accordingly, we survey relevant design literature focusing on the circular economy, through a review of contributions published in 42 scientific journals. Based on our results, we discuss how industrial design practices can potentially contribute to a circular economy across four thematic areas: (1) design for circular production processes, (2) design for circular consumption, (3) design to support policy towards the circular economy, and (4) design education for the circular economy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy)
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Article
Design for and from Recycling: A Circular Ecodesign Approach to Improve the Circular Economy
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9861; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239861 - 25 Nov 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1015
Abstract
In the context of a circular economy, one can observe that (i) recycling chains are not adapted enough to the end-of-life products they have to process and that (ii) products are not sufficiently well designed either to integrate at best their target recycling [...] Read more.
In the context of a circular economy, one can observe that (i) recycling chains are not adapted enough to the end-of-life products they have to process and that (ii) products are not sufficiently well designed either to integrate at best their target recycling chain. Therefore, a synergy between product designers and recycling-chains stakeholders is lacking, mainly due to their weak communication and the time-lag between the product design phase and its end-of-life treatment. Many Design for Recycling approaches coexist in the literature. However, to fully develop a circular economy, Design from Recycling also has to be taken into account. Thus Re-Cycling, a complete circular design approach, is proposed. First, a design for recycling methodology linking recyclability assessment to product design guidelines is proposed. Then, a design from recycling methodology is developed to assess the convenience of using secondary raw materials in the design phase. The recyclability of a smartphone and the convenience of using recycled materials in a new cycle are both analyzed to demonstrate our proposal. The Fairphone 2® and its treatment by the WEEE French takeback scheme are used as a case study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy)
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Article
Combining Eco-Design and LCA as Decision-Making Process to Prevent Plastics in Packaging Application
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9738; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229738 - 22 Nov 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2183
Abstract
The diffusion of the culture of sustainability and circular economy increasingly pushes companies to adopt green strategies and integrate circular business models in the corporate agenda. It assumes higher relevance in the packaging industry because of the growing plastics demand, the increasing awareness [...] Read more.
The diffusion of the culture of sustainability and circular economy increasingly pushes companies to adopt green strategies and integrate circular business models in the corporate agenda. It assumes higher relevance in the packaging industry because of the growing plastics demand, the increasing awareness of consumers on single-use-products, the low recyclability performance and last but not least, the challenge of urban littering and microplastics dispersion in marine ecosystem. This paper presents the case of a small-medium enterprise that implemented a decision-making process to rethink the design of frozen food packaging in accordance with systemic and life cycle thinking. Eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have been simultaneously used to test and validate the redesign process, thus fostering the substitution of the plastic “open and close” cap with a closing method entirely made of cardboard. Results shows how using an integrated decision-making system at the design stage have allowed to get up many benefits at multiple levels, including sustainable and safe supply chain, efficient logistic operations, better recyclability, and lower energy consumption. Moreover, even if it cannot be assessed by the existing tools, the solution provides a strong contribution to the reduction in the consumption of plastics and the prevention of marine pollution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy)
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Review

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Review
Design of Consumables in a Resource-Efficient Economy—A Literature Review
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1036; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031036 - 20 Jan 2021
Viewed by 429
Abstract
Consumable products have received less attention in the circular economy (CE), particularly in regard to the design of resource-efficient products. This literature review investigates the extent to which existing design guidelines for resource-efficient products are applicable to consumables. This analysis is divided into [...] Read more.
Consumable products have received less attention in the circular economy (CE), particularly in regard to the design of resource-efficient products. This literature review investigates the extent to which existing design guidelines for resource-efficient products are applicable to consumables. This analysis is divided into two parts. The first investigates the extent to which general product-design guidelines (i.e., applicable to both durables and consumables) are applicable to consumables. This analysis also scrutinizes the type of recommendations presented by the ecodesign and circular product design, to investigate the novel aspects of the CE in product design. The second analysis examines the type of design considerations the literature on product-type specific design guidelines recommends for specific consumables and whether such guidelines are transferable. The analysis of general guidelines showed that, although guidelines are intended to be general and applicable to many types of products, their applicability to consumable products is limited. Less than half of their recommendations can be applied to consumables. The analysis also identified several design considerations that are transferable between product-specific design guidelines. This paper shows the importance of the life-cycle perspective in product design, to maximize the opportunities to improve consumables. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product Eco-Design in the Era of Circular Economy)
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