HL.b.17—Circular economy and doughnut economics

Circular economy keeps products and materials useful through design, repair, reuse, remanufacture and recovery; doughnut economics adds a social foundation and ecological ceiling.

Product stewardship assigns producers responsibility across design, sale, collection and end-of-life, encouraging durable products and take-back rather than transferring disposal costs to users or poorer communities.

A repair-and-refill system can reduce virgin material demand, but test whether low-income residents can access it, workers are protected and residual waste is not exported to communities with less power.

Evaluate loop quality, producer responsibility, ecological limits, social access and distribution of benefits and harms.

A circular product is not automatically equitable, closed-loop or impact-free.