Repurpose: new uses for discarded materials

Repurpose: reusing discarded products

By 2050, the Netherlands wants to be fully circular. One way to achieve this is through the use of repurpose: a strategy in which discarded products, parts or materials are used for a new product with a different function. Think of Freitag's bags, made from old truck tarps. It is an interesting option for residual streams that are too valuable for recycling or even incineration, but do not lend themselves to higher circular reuse, as in repair, refurbish or remanufacture.

New destination for SME residual streams

SMEs have many such residual streams, but do not know how to give them a new destination. Current business models, design and production methods are often not usable because the quality of the residual streams varies and availability is not constant or even limited.

We see unique opportunities for reusing discarded products and materials with more retention of value than recycling. More knowledge is needed about this repurpose strategy if we are to move to circular use of materials. We developed that knowledge in this project.

Inge Oskam

Professor of Circular Design and Business

New strategies

The goal of this project was to develop knowledge for new circular design, manufacturing and business model strategies. So that waste collectors, designers and manufacturers can get started with Repurpose Driven Design and Manufacturing. And of course to realize impact in terms of less waste and resource conservation in the chain.

To achieve that, researchers inventoried and analyzed completed and new repurpose cases. What does the development process look like and what bottlenecks emerge in it? What choices were made regarding design, production and business model strategies?

Partners and funding

The Repurpose Driven Design and Manufacturing project was funded in part by the RAAK-mkb grant from Regieorgaan SIA. The research was a collaboration between knowledge institutes (AUAS and TU Delft), designers (Cartoni, Studio Hamerhaai, Tolhuijs Design and VerdraaidGoed), product companies (Ahrend, Bugaboo, Springtime and Fiction Factory) and collectors of waste streams (Groencollect, Renewi). For the transfer of knowledge, AUAS collaborates with network organizations (FME) and platforms (CIRCO, Amsterdam Made).

Follow-up project: Repurpose - from Worthless to Valuable (2022-2024)

The waste streams used in repurpose have their own history of use, functionality and form, and their availability, quality and quantity varies. This requires a different approach to the design process. To help companies with this, AUAS has developed four tools for designing with waste streams in the follow-up project Repurpose - from Worthless to Valuable. The tools were developed in collaboration with project partners Tolhuijs Design and VerdraaidGoed.

• Orientation tool: is a residual stream suitable to be used in a new product with a different function? That question is essential in repurpose. To answer it, the researchers first developed an orientation tool, which can be used to identify aspects such as continuity, quantity, location and various costs.
• Motivation task: next, a method was developed to identify the motivation of a possible client. This can be used to conclude whether repurpose is useful or promising.
• Material exploration: if the above tools show that a waste stream is suitable for repurpose, a designer can start working with the material. This is done using a third tool: a material exploration. This identifies the specific properties and characteristics of the material.
• Thinker tool: finally, the designer can experiment with the material using the so-called Thinker tool. This allows the various experiments to be listed in an orderly fashion.

This project was partly funded by the KIEM grant from Regieorgaan SIA.

Team

• Inge Oskam(opens in new window)
• Mark Lepelaar
• Annelies de Leede
• Marco van Hees
• Jeroen van Vorsselen