Choose a kind of material object you regularly interact with that is not part a circular economic system. (Which is probably almost anything!) Speculate on how this kind of object could redesigned to be part of a circular economy, by changing its composition and connected infrastructures. In addition to the material components, what other social aspects that we’ve discussed throughout the course would need to change as well for this to be a desirable future?

Readings from this week:

McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. “Waste Equals Food.” In Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. 1st ed. New York: North Point Press, 2002, 92-117.

Visual Capitalist. “Visualized: The Circular Economy 101,” January 13, 2022. https://metals.visualcapitalist.com/sp/visualized-the-circular-economy-101/.

Genovese, Andrea, and Mario Pansera. “The Circular Economy at a Crossroads: Technocratic Eco-Modernism or Convivial Technology for Social Revolution?” Capitalism Nature Socialism 32, no. 2 (April 3, 2021): 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2020.1763414.

(Also feel free to include the utopian readings from last week, or any others that are relevant!)