Could redesigning how you make and use products stop waste and unlock new value for your company?

You face rising costs and tighter resources. Many companies now shift from take-make-waste to models that keep products and materials in use.

This change reduces waste, lowers pollution, and strengthens resilience against supply shocks. It also opens recurring revenue and deeper ties with customers.

In 2026, policy moves and investor interest make this transition urgent. You’ll learn practical steps to redesign product design, operations, and service so your teams can capture real benefits.

Read on to see why acting now can protect the environment and improve your market position.

What a circular economy business is and why it matters right now

The old take-make-dispose path is giving way to approaches that keep products alive and useful. This shift matters because it cuts waste, lowers pollution, and preserves value across product life.

How it differs: A linear system extracts raw materials, makes a product, and then discards it. In contrast, a model that keeps materials in use relies on maintenance, reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacture, and recycling to extend life and preserve value.

From linear take-make-waste to circulate-and-regenerate

Core processes stop product loss and reduce environmental impact. When you design for repair and parts recovery, you cut demand for raw materials and lower waste management costs.

The three design-driven principles

• Eliminate waste and pollution: pick materials and processes that avoid toxic outputs.
• Circulate products and materials at high value: prioritize reuse, repair, and remanufacture before recycling.
• Regenerate nature: return nutrients safely and support biodiversity through thoughtful material choices.

Design decides outcomes. More than 80% of a product’s environmental impact is set during design. That makes modular parts, standardized fasteners, and easy disassembly critical for reusing and recovering materials at scale.

Policy and market signals are accelerating the transition. Read a practical overview of this trend at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The business case: value, resilience, and environmental impact you can measure

You change outcomes when design, lifecycle choices, and service link to clear KPIs. Those links let you prove savings and environmental gains to leaders and customers.

Trackable wins come from eight distinct advantages that outpace linear models: better products, stronger customer ties, lower costs, recurring revenue, greater resilience, higher component utility, faster turnaround, and climate gains.

Three measurable ways to start

• Connect design choices to emissions and waste metrics so you reduce compliance risk and lower costs.
• Shift to service-led offers to boost lifetime value and deepen customer relationships.
• Use refurbishment and reuse to cut production time and recover materials and resources internally.

Concrete examples that prove the point

SKF’s RecondOil cleans and reuses oil, avoiding as many as 30 oil changes in a seven-year cycle. That saves downtime and logistics costs.

Refurbished wind turbines can ship in four months versus up to two years for new units. Those speed gains translate into real competitive value.

Choose your circular business model: pathways that fit your products and customers

Pick the model that fits how your products are used and what your customers value most.

Start by mapping where value leaks today: idle assets, frequent failures, or hard-to-recycle components. That snapshot guides which approach will reduce waste and protect materials.

Product-as-a-service and sharing

Consider product-as-a-service when durability, maintenance, and upgrades create clear value. You keep ownership, standardize parts, and plan refurb cycles to capture high-value components.

Sharing models suit underused assets. Use telematics and digital reservations to boost utilization, cut idle time, and lower per-use resource costs.

Repair, refurbish, remanufacture, and recovery

Design repair and refurbishment into your production and aftersales. Modular parts and accessible fasteners speed service and reduce time to return items to use.

Set up recovery programs with take-back, deposits, or contract terms so items flow back for repair, remanufacture, or recycling. That protects resource value and supports recycling at scale.

Decide where to pilot

Evaluate price points, service intensity, and customer preference. Factor regulatory context like right-to-repair and ecodesign rules when you pick a pilot.

• Match model to product type and customer needs.
• Align manufacturing, spare parts, and testing with the chosen approach.
• Craft contracts that encourage returns and clear expectations for customers.

Start small, measure utilization and return rates, then scale the model that shows real savings and stronger customer ties.

Your step-by-step How-To: implement circularity across design, production, and use

Begin with small, practical steps that change how products are designed, made, and returned. Focus on rules that lock in repair, parts harvesting, and safe recycling so materials keep their highest value.

Design out waste

Choose durable architecture and modular assemblies so a single failed part does not end the product’s life. Standardize fasteners and document a material passport for easy sorting.

Redesign operations

Specify long-life materials and capture offcuts for reuse. Adjust manufacturing to enable quick disassembly and minimize on-line waste. Build reverse logistics with barcodes or digital IDs to track returns.

Engage customers

Use deposits, loyalty credits, and take-back discounts to boost returns. Offer clear service contracts that encourage maintenance and reduce pollution and energy drain across the life cycle.

Pilot, iterate, and scale

• Start small, define KPIs, and validate the business model.
• Align procurement, warranty, and service incentives with recovery goals.
• Use return data to refine design, materials, and processes each cycle.

Design principles in action: keep products and materials cycling at their highest value

Put simple loops in place so parts and materials keep serving real uses for longer. This practical approach reduces waste and protects value while lowering reliance on raw materials and volatile prices.

Maintenance, refurbishment, and remanufacturing loops for extended life

Set clear operational loops: schedule maintenance to preserve function, use refurbishment to restore performance, and remanufacture to return product as-new.

Standardize parts and set refurb thresholds so teams can quickly decide whether to repair, remanufacture, or recycle. That keeps high-value components in circulation longer.

Material cycles: from raw inputs to recycled feedstocks that cut resource risk

Document material composition so recyclers can separate streams effectively and return high-grade inputs, not downcycled waste.

• Prioritize recycled feedstocks to reduce exposure to raw materials price spikes.
• Build clean disassembly and safe handling rules to lower pollution and protect workers.
• Engage suppliers to co-develop parts that are easier to remanufacture and recycle.

Measure the benefits: track life extension and material recirculation so you can show value to leadership and customers. Small, repeatable gains in reuse and recycling compound into real resilience for your company.

Circular economy business metrics and examples you can learn from

Measure what matters: clear KPIs turn recovery programs into measurable gains.

Focus on a short list: utilization rates for shared assets, return rates for take-back, recycled content in new production, waste and GHG reductions, and customer lifetime value.

Use SKF’s RecondOil as an example target. Its oil-as-a-service model can avoid up to 30 oil changes in seven years, cutting downtime, logistics, and waste.

Benchmark refurbishment timing with wind turbines. Refurbished units ship in about four months versus up to two years for new, freeing capital and speeding delivery.

Design e-waste recovery after the n2s model: prioritize reuse and redeploy, then recycling. Track recovered tonnes of copper and compare them to raw materials extraction equivalents.

• Set targets: utilization, return rates, recycled content, and tonnes recovered.
• Align KPIs: tie metrics to customer reliability, cost of use, and regulatory requirements like ecodesign and right-to-repair.
• Show results: dashboards that link operational, financial, and environmental performance make the value clear.

Conclusion

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Start with a tight scope: one product, one model, and measurable goals to show results in months.

Pick a product and launch a focused pilot. Set targets for return rates, utilization, and recycled content so you can report clear wins.

Align leadership around why the shift matters: it reduces waste, protects the environment, and strengthens your core business as policy and market demand evolve.

Summarize the moves that work: service-led offers, repair and refurbishment flows, and high-value materials cycles. Use pilot data to refine the model and scale what proves profitable.

Act now to secure benefits for your customers and your company. Small, measured steps create confidence and speed the transition across your teams.