6.1.8—Circular business models

Circular models keep products and materials in use through repair, reuse, remanufacture, sharing or recycling while reducing waste.

Design, incentives, reverse logistics and customer behaviour determine whether value actually circulates.

Trace the product after use and identify the revenue and recovery mechanism.

A tool company leases durable drills, retrieves them, repairs them and leases them again.

Recycling alone may destroy more value than reuse or repair.

Distinguish the five specified models. Circular supply replaces finite inputs with renewable, recyclable or biodegradable ones; resource recovery captures useful materials or energy from outputs and waste; product life extension repairs, upgrades, refurbishes or remanufactures products; sharing models increase utilization by enabling access among users; product service systems sell access or performance rather than ownership. A drill subscription with take-back may combine product service and life extension, but a circular claim is credible only when design, reverse logistics, incentives and recovered value close the loop without shifting greater impacts elsewhere.