Take-Back Schemes: Designing for Circularity

在英国家庭产生的全部废物中，6.3%是在其使用寿命结束之前被丢弃的产品(Statista，2022)。虽然70%的英国消费者表示对延长产品寿命感兴趣，但54%的人认为促进可获得的循环解决方案应该是零售商的责任(凯捷，2021)。现有的零售商主导的解决方案是收回计划(TBS)，允许消费者退回使用过的产品，有时以换取奖励。然而，现有的TBS在可持续发展目标上是不一致和不透明的，一些集中在慈善合作伙伴关系上，另一些集中在有限的二手转售倡议和回收-所有这些都未能提供一个真正可持续的解决方案来解决废物预防和再利用问题。我们对这个项目的愿景是完全重新思考围绕零售商主导的TBS的现有解决方案和基础设施。通过以人为本的设计，我们的目标是确定TBS的最佳方法，使产品能够重复使用、再制造和转售-而不是去垃圾填埋场。该项目可能会产生新的方法来关闭生产和废物之间的循环，或者产生全新的生态系统，利用外部平台和基础设施的力量，使产品达到预期的寿命。

Of the total UK waste from households, 6.3% is comprised of products thrown away before the end of their useful lives (Statista,2022). Whilst 70% of UK consumers express interest in product-life extension, 54% believe that it should be the responsibility of the retailer to facilitate accessible, circular solutions (Capgemini,2021).An existing retailer-led solution is take-back schemes (TBS), which allow consumers to return used products, sometimes in exchange for an incentive. However, existing TBS are inconsistent and opaque in their sustainability objectives, some centred on charitable partnerships, others on limited second-hand resale initiatives and recycling - all of which fail to provide a truly sustainable solution that addresses waste prevention and reuse.Our vision for this project is to completely rethink the existing solutions and infrastructures around retailer-led TBS. Using human-centred design, we aim to determine optimal approaches to TBS, enabling products to be reused, remanufactured and resold - rather than going to landfill. The project may produce new approaches to closing the loop between production and waste, or entirely new ecosystems that will harness the power of external platforms and infrastructures that enable products to reach their intended lifespan.