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Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 36956

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Valentina Rognoli

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Guest Editor

Design Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milano 20158, Italy
Interests: DIY-Materials for social innovation and sustainability; Bio-based and circular Materials; Urban materials and materials from waste and food waste; Materials for interactions and IoT (ICS Materials); Speculative materials; Tinkering with materials; Materials Driven Design method; CMF design; emerging materials experiences; and material education in the field of design

Prof. Dr. Carla Langella

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Guest Editor

Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via S. Lorenzo, 31, 81031 Aversa CE, Italy
Interests: Bio-smart materials; product design innovation; Biomimetics; Industrial design; Sustainable design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of sustainability is a continually evolving threshold in step with technology and the ability it provides for understanding the environment. Various disciplines have always contributed by bringing essential concepts and tools to approach the growing complexity of the design project and its continuous dialogue with the environment.

The world we live in, now devastated in all its parts by depletion and pollution related to the choices of an unsustainable economy, needs adequate design solutions consistent with the concept of sustainability and circularity. Although it has been talked about for a long time, however, significant research and contributions are still needed on new material solutions that make new products possible and establish new design methods and practices.

It has been estimated that 80% of the environmental impact of a product or service is determined in the design phase, which is why product design has a great responsibility and must try to guide the transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy.

This Special Issue aims to bring together research on the development of materials and processes that can foster the development of innovative products that can promote a circular economy. It includes research on rethought and updated traditional materials; interactive, connected and smart materials; self-produced materials using alternative resources such as waste and scrap; upcycling processes, living biological materials or those that have lived, capable of self-generating and growing.

The contributions will highlight these different possible ways of closing the cycles through a virtuous integration between product design, material science and economy. The concepts of sustainability and circularity can be interpreted both in an environmental and a social sense.

We, therefore, welcome articles on recent or ongoing research in the field of materials for design that highlight valid alternatives to the current unsustainable and linear solutions.

Prof. Dr. Valentina Rognoli
Prof. Dr. Carla Langella
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

Sustainability
circular materials
bio-materials
DIY-Materials
ICS Materials

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3082 KiB

Open AccessArticle

For a Coexistence with the More-Than-Human: Making Biomaterials from a Philosophical Perspective

by Chiara Scarpitti and Francesca Valsecchi

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5464; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065464 - 20 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1552

Abstract

This paper discusses the domain of do-it-yourself (DIY) biomaterials applied to design, by analysing aims, speculative value and aesthetics emerging from this encounter. From a transdisciplinary perspective, the convergence of postanthropocentric philosophies with systematic experiments in two different laboratories, located in Italy and China, demonstrates how design practices can contribute to new forms of human–nature relationships, highlighting a pluriverse way to understand life. Because of the dual approach of philosophical theories and hands-on experiments, biomaterials become tangible tools which change the very idea of “designed objects”: they assign to artefacts circular, living, and integrated properties, thereby placing them within the notion of an ecosystem. Nevertheless, beyond bio-based properties, the three most interesting qualities emerging from this theoretical–practical study are (1) 1:1 scale of production, (2) organic-formless aesthetic, and (3) multispecies coexistence. We argue that through such a model of bioproduction, the designer can assume the role of catalyst for a postanthropocentric vision, dismantling the feeling of separation, alterity, and not-belonging between the human and the nonhuman, between objects and organisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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20 pages, 2313 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Natural Are the “Natural” Materials? Proposal for a Quali-Quantitative Measurement Index of Naturalness in the Environmental Sustainability Context

by Doriana Dal Palù and Beatrice Lerma

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4349; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054349 - 28 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1339

Abstract

The overall purpose of the paper is overcoming the misunderstanding of the “naturalness” attribute of materials. This is due to the always-increasing innovative materials considered “environmentally sustainable” and “natural” by producers, material libraries, and designers. The investigated research problem is: how to simply and effectively evaluate the degree of naturalness of a material, preventing a complete and complex LCA analysis? The basic design of the study was focused on (i) creating a multicriteria quali-quantitative method—Material Naturalness Index (MNI)—in order to assess materials’ naturalness scientifically, and (ii) test it by running the evaluation on 60 innovative materials. MNI was set considering the least number of parameters of the Material Life Cycle (i.e., resource kingdom, material resource, material processing, post-use processing). The 60 latest materials selected from the “natural” material family of six international material libraries were selected to test the index. The data analysis was based on the Theory of Attractive Quality, considering attractive, must-be, or reverse qualities. Major findings concerning the index utility were found as a result. MNI was demonstrated to support different actors with different aims: (i) designers, in independently evaluating naturalness of materials using real evidence and pursuing a critical point of view not influenced by marketing claims; (ii) producers, in facing the challenge of naturalness; (iii) material libraries, which are collocated between the two other actors, in proposing measurable information concerning naturalness. In conclusion, the study demonstrated how the key-concept of “naturalness” should be assumed as an attribute rather than as a material family. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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20 pages, 3649 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Design in the CE Transition of the Furniture Industry—The Case of the Italian Company Cassina

by Davide Bruno, Marinella Ferrara, Felice D’Alessandro and Alberto Mandelli

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9168; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159168 - 26 Jul 2022

Viewed by 2470

Abstract

The literature on circular economy has highlighted the need for more studies focused on investigating the journey of individual companies in the transition toward sustainable processes. This paper addresses this need by focusing on the furniture design industry, showing how the transition requires the re-organization of knowledge regarding materials, processes, technologies, and product quality. This assumption is demonstrated through the design research activity conducted in 2019–2020 as the first part of broader research by Cassina LAB, a collaboration between Cassina Research and Development Centre and POLI.design of Politecnico di Milano. Based on the analysis of the Italian furniture industry between constraints and opportunities, the aim of the research is to identify critical issues and propose sustainable and circular solutions, tailor-made for Cassina. Through this example, the paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it adds to the understanding of how companies are adopting the circular economy paradigm. Secondly, it contributes to defining tools to implement new forms of knowledge of materials and re-design processes to deliver products that are compatible with a circular economy model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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21 pages, 6028 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Creating a Circular Design Workspace: Lessons Learned from Setting up a “Bio-Makerspace”

by Bert Vuylsteke, Louise Dumon, Jan Detand and Francesca Ostuzzi

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2229; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042229 - 16 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2852

Abstract

In today’s industrial short-lived products, long-lasting materials are often implemented (e.g., oil-based plastics for throwaway packaging). Circular economy teaches the importance of keeping these materials in use, as well as designing end-of-lives that regenerate natural systems. Designers can help drive to a circular transition, but are they ready for this challenge? Educating young designers on circularity seems a fundamental first step, including knowing and meaningfully using circular, bio-based and biodegradable materials. This substantiates the decision to expand the UGent Campus Kortrijk Design workspace to include specific technologies for circular, bio-based and biodegradable materials as a means of experiential learning during the prototyping phase. This paper reports on setting up a “bio-makerspace” as well as the use, adaption and redesign by 45 students. Qualitative data on work dynamics, used tools, materials, barriers and enablers were captured and analyzed to potentially facilitate the implementation of similar “bio-makerspaces” in different institutions. The next steps include the expansion and intensification of the use of the lab, in conjunction with the education of students to meaningfully match these materials to sustainable applications beyond the prototyping phase. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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23 pages, 2086 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biobased Innovation as a Fashion and Textile Design Must: A European Perspective

by Erminia D’Itria and Chiara Colombi

Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 570; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010570 - 05 Jan 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 8034

Abstract

Fashion industry investments drive the choice for textile solutions characterized by radical experimentation and a firm commitment to sustainability. In the last five years, textile innovations have been strongly related to biobased textile solutions evolving to become effectively feasible and strategic. The produced qualitative knowledge implementations consider new production patterns, innovative technical and digital know-how, and new consumption scenarios. The directions the industry is tracing may provide new opportunities for future textile development in the circular biobased economy. This paper presents a map of current European practices. It discusses the possible passage through a holistic paradigm that goes beyond the boundaries of the old productive systems to accompany the sector towards a new sustainable and transversal state. It also presents three selected best practices that return the actual context in which the phenomenon occurs. A model is presented to demonstrate how these circular processes of biobased materials production enable more process innovations which are developed through implementing the process itself: companies’ search for rethinking and implementing the traditional practices or designing new ones (as determined by the doctoral research of one of the authors). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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17 pages, 3844 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Regenerative Textiles: A Framework for Future Materials Circularity in the Textile Value Chain

by Miriam Ribul

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13910; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413910 - 16 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5928

Abstract

Materials science breakthroughs have regenerated high value fibres from end-of-life cellulose-based textiles that can be introduced into existing textile fabrication processes from raw material to textile product in established textile value chains. Scientific developments with regenerated cellulose fibres obtained from waste textiles suggest their potential to replace virgin resources. The current scale-up of regeneration technologies for end-of-life cellulose-based textiles towards pilot and commercial scales can potentially achieve a future materials circularity, but there is a lack of a long-term view of the properties of materials after consecutive recycling stages take place. Cellulose-based materials cannot be infinitely recycled and maintain the same quality, a factor which may provide new challenges for future textile processes in the context of the circular bioeconomy. This paper maps collaborative design and materials science projects that use regenerated cellulose obtained from waste feedstock according to materials in the value chain they seek to substitute. It also presents four new processes that use regenerated cellulose materials in relation to their intervention in the value chain (as determined in a PhD investigation). A framework is presented to demonstrate how these circular material design processes take place at earlier stages of the textile value chain after subsequent regeneration stages. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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17 pages, 5549 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transformation of Glass Fiber Waste into Mesoporous Zeolite-Like Nanomaterials with Efficient Adsorption of Methylene Blue

by Cheng-Kuo Tsai and Jao-Jia Horng

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6207; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116207 - 31 May 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2401

Abstract

Recycling and reusing glass fiber waste (GFW) has become an environmental concern, as the means of disposal are becoming limited as GFW production increases. Therefore, this study developed a novel, cost-effective method to turn GFW into a mesoporous zeolite-like nanomaterial (MZN) that could serve as an environmentally benign adsorbent and efficient remover of methylene blue (MB) from solutions. Using the Taguchi optimizing approach to hydrothermal alkaline activation, we produced analcime with interconnected nanopores of about 11.7 nm. This MZN had a surface area of 166 m² g⁻¹ and was negatively charged with functional groups that could adsorb MB ranging from pH 2 to 10 and all with excellent capacity at pH 6.0 of the maximum Langmuir adsorption capacity of 132 mg g⁻¹. Moreover, the MZN adsorbed MB exothermically, and the reaction is reversible according to its thermodynamic parameters. In sum, this study indicated that MZN recycled from glass fiber waste is a novel, environmentally friendly means to adsorb cation methylene blue (MB), thus opening a gateway to the design and fabrication of ceramic-zeolite and tourmaline-ceramic balls and ceramic ring-filter media products. In addition, it has environmental applications such as removing cation dyes and trace metal ions from aqueous solutions and recycling water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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21 pages, 1041 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Material Selection and Product Design on Automotive Vehicle Recyclability

by Xiaohui He, Dongmei Su, Wenchao Cai, Alexandra Pehlken, Guofang Zhang, Aimin Wang and Jinsheng Xiao

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3407; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063407 - 19 Mar 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3752

Abstract

From 2008 to 2020, Chinese automobile production and sales have ranked first in the world. The huge production, sales, and ownership of automobiles will inevitably lead to a rapid increase of end-of-life vehicles in the future and a corresponding issue of resource recycling. Based on the analysis of a practical dismantling study and statistics declared by the supplier of 19.5% of components and parts with a weight greater than 0.5 kg from two typical vehicle models from 2011 to 2013, this paper focuses on nonmetallic components and parts, the connection of components and parts materials, and the product life cycle of each stage, to find rational technical solutions, and therefore maximize recyclability and recoverability and achieve sustainable development. On one hand, recycling at each stage for vehicles is considered in the design and development of products. As a result, it is found that the main methods, which are conducive to recycling, are increasing the use ratio of materials that are easy to recycle. In addition, general principles of material selection are summarized. On the other hand, vehicles’ dismantling is considered in the initial stage of product design and methods of structural design are summarized. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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Review

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23 pages, 3741 KiB

Open AccessReview

Design, Materials, and Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing in Circular Economy Contexts: From Waste to New Products

by Alessia Romani, Valentina Rognoli and Marinella Levi

Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7269; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137269 - 29 Jun 2021

Cited by 46 | Viewed by 6027

Abstract

The transition toward circular economy models has been progressively promoted in the last few years. Different disciplines and strategies may significantly support this change. Although the specific contribution derived from design, material science, and additive manufacturing is well-established, their interdisciplinary relationship in circular economy contexts is relatively unexplored. This paper aims to review the main case studies related to new circular economy models for waste valorization through extrusion-based additive manufacturing, circular materials, and new design strategies. The general patterns were investigated through a comprehensive analysis of 74 case studies from academic research and design practice in the last six-year period (2015–2021), focusing on the application fields, the 3D printing technologies, and the materials. Further considerations and future trends were then included by looking at the relevant funded projects and case studies of 2021. A broader number of applications, circular materials, and technologies were explored by the academic context, concerning the practice-based scenario linked to more consolidated fields. Thanks to the development of new strategies and experiential tools, academic research and practice can be linked to foster new opportunities to implement circular economy models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)

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