3 ways for businesses to adopt a circular model

1. The subscription model

In the subscription model, customers lease products for as long as they need them rather than buying them outright. They receive ongoing access to the latest products and return unused products to the company to be recycled or upgraded. 

• Benefit

Manufacturers can refurbish products or recycle their constituent parts more effectively, which can significantly reduce the need for virgin manufacturing.

2. Deposit return schemes

A growing number of European countries have introduced deposit return schemes that mandate participation by companies selling certain consumer goods (such as soft drinks in plastic containers), with consumers paying a small charge on each purchase, refundable when they return the item. 

• Benefit

When implemented efficiently, such schemes can drive up recycling (although the consumer goods companies participating in them must find ways to retrieve the plastic collected, often from disparate and widespread sources).

3. Deliver and return 

In deliver and return schemes, consumers voluntarily return used/spent items for recycling by the retailer/manufacturer. The main current example of this is coffee pods.

• Benefit

Such schemes have the potential to be scaled up across an industry. (Nestlé, for example, is attempting to develop an industry-wide pod recycling system which it describes as “the only viable pathway to a truly global aluminum coffee capsule recycling solution.”)