What circular economy measures fit what kind of product?

Book chapter, 2020

This chapter provides guidelines onmeasuresfor resource efficiency (RE) for products with different characteristics. The guidelines target product chain actors, producers and their designers, users and post use actors and are useful also to policy makers and business models developers.They are based on a life-cycle based typology for RE measures, distinguishing what measures may be undertaken in different life cycle phases, extraction and production, use and post use. Product characteristics is argued to be an appropriate basis for identification of RE strategies. For the use phase, it matters whether products are durable or consumable. Durable products are further divided into those using energy and/or auxiliary material during use and those that do not. Characteristics of importance for consumable products are whether they are disposable orused in a dissipative manner. Post use measures depend primarily on material properties while measures in the production phase are largely independent of product characteristics.