It represents the ability to say 'no', refusing infinite growth and choosing the concept of limit as the central value of one's choices. The refusion, following a critical reflection of the linear system, is the first step towards new economic, cultural and social paradigms. By choosing to refuse, you avoid buying or producing new goods, not really necessary or whose function can be replaced by something already owned, to which you can have free access or on the market.

Strategy that invites us to look differently at the way in which we use (produce and consume) things, the amount of resources used and the waste produced. Rethinking means making use of a product by designing logics of sharing and renting products that allow goods not to be “dormant values”. It requires working on the creation of relationships between actors of the same territorial system. The related business models are: product as a service, based on the use of goods and not on their possession, and the models of sharing products.

This “R” encompasses actions that aim to minimize environmental impact and waste in all phases of production and use of goods and services. It is implemented by reducing impacts and waste for greater process efficiency, optimizing the demands for materials and incoming energy. In addition to this, it proposes the adoption of circular inputs (both for the production of materials and energy) as strategic business factors (renewable and/or biodegradable inputs and/or inputs made from recycled matter, by-products, or recycled material).

“Any operation through which products or components that are not waste are reused for the same purpose for which they were conceived” (Directive 2008/98/EC, art. 3, paragraph 13): such as second-hand markets, exchange practices, and gift giving.

Strategy that aims to ensure that an asset - designed to contain something - can do it repeatedly and for a long time, and not just once. This category includes bulk logistics, returnable vacuum and those strategies created to replace typically disposable products such as sanitary napkins, diapers with washable diapers or menstrual cups, or even disposable dishes with reusable dishes. For companies, it means structuring themselves internally and designing products that offer alternatives to disposable use.

An operation through which broken and no longer functioning goods are put back into operation, so that they can be used with their original function.

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It is a matter of restoring used products through a modernization process that involves the replacement of old and/or worn parts as new parts and provides for the issuance of a warranty, as for the new one. For the two practices to have maximum effectiveness, it becomes important that the products are designed according to the criterion of modularity and easy disassemblability, thanks to which individual components can be easily removed, repaired, replaced.

Repurposing involves a process of transforming an asset or material (no longer functioning for the purpose for which it was created), so that it acquires greater use value (upcycling). This can happen without modifying the material, as in the case of an old barrel that becomes a bar table; or, it can happen by intervening on the material of which a good is made, for example as when the waste of citrus fruits becomes an input for the creation of a new type of paper, instead of simply being composted. The principles of upcycling (McDonough & Braungart, 2013) find application in industrial symbiosis, which, through the exchange of resources and by-products, aims to develop synergistic and profitable collaborations between companies.

“Any recovery operation through which waste materials are reprocessed to obtain products, materials or substances to be used for their original function or for other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but not the recovery of energy nor the reprocessing to obtain materials to be used as fuels or in filling operations” (Directive 2008/98/EC, art. 3, paragraph 17). There are two types of recycling:

• post-consumer: refers to products that have reached the end of their useful life, which in turn can be managed through closed cycles (by the same manufacturing company) or through open cycles (separate collection system)

• pre-consumption: refers to the recovery of production waste or scrap.

Is what I'm throwing in the unsorted bin really and entirely non-recyclable?

This “R” does not exist in scientific literature, it is a proposal created within the reflections of NODES research to enrich the “10R” model (of a technical nature and referring to goods and services) of a component related to the sphere of social and civil impact and thus make it more consistent with the definition of 3C for CEFF. It investigates quality before quantity, and the type of relationships that production models trigger and maintain with and between living people (workers, boards, suppliers, investors, end users, policymakers, retailers, disposal workers, volunteers, community close to production sites, extended community, flora and fauna). This discourse includes various economic, political and cultural factors that determine relational dynamics: contracts, relational times and spaces, training, space for personal flourishing, enhancement of gender equity, care for communication methods and transmission of information in/outside reality, ethical certifications, manifesto of values, code of ethics, commitment to impact assessment, etc.

“Accountability” for the results and impact of circular practices, or of experimentation and research on the subject, is a way to share perspectives, goals (and failures) that contribute to a sustainable way of doing business, but also of inspiring and encouraging other stakeholders.