The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, but the world is still reeling from its aftermath. Originating from China, cases quickly spread across the globe, prompting the implementation of stringent measures by world governments in efforts to isolate cases and limit the transmission rate of the virus. These measures have however shattered the core sustaining pillars of the modern world economies as global trade and cooperation succumbed to nationalist focus and competition for scarce supplies. Against this backdrop, this paper presents a critical review of the catalogue of negative and positive impacts of the pandemic and proffers perspectives on how it can be leveraged to steer towards a better, more resilient low-carbon economy. The paper diagnosed the danger of relying on pandemic-driven benefits to achieving sustainable development goals and emphasizes a need for a decisive, fundamental structural change to the dynamics of how we live. It argues for a rethink of the present global economic growth model, shaped by a linear economy system and sustained by profiteering and energy-gulping manufacturing processes, in favour of a more sustainable model recalibrated on circular economy (CE) framework. Building on evidence in support of CE as a vehicle for balancing the complex equation of accomplishing profit with minimal environmental harms, the paper outlines concrete sector-specific recommendations on CE-related solutions as a catalyst for the global economic growth and development in a resilient post-COVID-19 world.

A critical analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy and ecosystems and opportunities for circular economy strategies

Materials are the stuff of design. From the very beginning of human history, materials have been taken from the natural world and shaped, modified, and adapted for everything from primitive tools to modern electronics. This renowned book by noted materials engineering author Mike Ashby and Industrial designer, Kara Johnson, explores the role of materials and materials processing in product design, with a particular emphasis on creating both desired aesthetics and functionality. The new edition will feature even more of the highly useful "materials profiles," that give critical design, processing, performance and applications criteria for each material in question. The reader will find information ranging from the generic and commercial names of each material, its physical and mechanical properties, its chemical properties, its common uses, how it is typically made and processed, and even its average price. And with improved photographs and drawings, the reader will be taken even more closely to the way real design is done by real designers, selecting the optimum materials for a successful product.
	
	* The best guide ever published on the on the role of materials, past and present, in product development, by noted materials authority Mike Ashby and professional designer Kara Johnson--now with even better photos and drawings on the Design Process
	
	* Significant new section on the use of re-cycled materials in products, and the importance of sustainable design for manufactured goods and services
	
	* Enhanced materials profiles, with addition of new materials types like nanomaterials, advanced plastics and bio-based materials

Materials and Design : The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design 2nd edition Ed. 2

Exploring environmental and economic costs and benefits of a circular economy approach to the construction and demolition sector. A literature review

This article contains the results of a study performed to support the Dutch environmental policy of dematerialization. The aim of the study was to develop and apply a methodology to identify the materials that contribute most to the environmental problems in the Netherlands. The developed methodology combines aspects of material flow accounting (MFA) and life‐cycle assessment (LCA) and aims at adding a set of environmental weights to the flows of the materials. The methodology was applied to a number of materials. For these materials, impacts per kilogram were extracted from a standard LCA database in combination with standard LCA software. These impacts per kilogram are then multiplied with the yearly throughput of each material in the Netherlands to obtain an indication of the environmental impacts associated with each material. This article contains a discussion of dematerialization as background for the research, a description of the methodology followed by the results of its application, and a discussion of the comparison of impact‐based versus mass‐based indicators. Materials vary many orders of magnitude in their impacts per unit mass. In general, the impact per unit of mass of bulk materials is lower than that of materials used in small quantities. This implies that the variation in orders of magnitude of impact multiplied by mass is much less than either mass or impact per kilogram separately. High‐priority materials based on impact multiplied by mass are either small‐quantity materials with very high impacts per kilogram (such as heavy metals) or large‐quantity materials with not‐so‐low impacts per kilogram (such as materials from agriculture and plastics).

Dematerialization Not Just a Matter of Weigbt

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for at least 30% of the total solid waste produced around the world. At around 924 million tons in the European Union in 2016 and 2.36 billion tons in China in 2018, the amount is expected to increase over the next few years. Dumping these wastes in sanitary landfills has always been the traditional approach to waste management but this will not be feasible in the years to come. To significantly reduce or eliminate the amount of CDW being dumped, circular economy is a possible solution to the increasing amounts of CDW. Circular economy is an economic system based on business models which replaces the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials. This paper discusses circular economy (CE) frameworks-specifically material recovery and production highlighting the reuse and recycling of CDW and reprocessing into new construction applications. Likewise, a literature review into recent studies of reuse and recycling of CDW and its feasibility is also discussed to possibly prove the effectivity of CE in reducing CDW. Findings such as effectivity of recycling CDW into new construction applications and its limitations in effective usage are discussed and research gaps such as reuse of construction materials are also undertaken. CE and recycling were also found to be emerging topics. Observed trends in published articles as well as the use of latent Dirichlet allocation in creating topic models have shown a rising awareness and increasing research in CE which focuses on recycling and reusing CDW.

Circular Economy on Construction and Demolition Waste: A Literature Review on Material Recovery and Production

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/883424.pdf

Design for Disassembly and Deconstruction - Challenges and Opportunities

Reusing exterior wall framing systems: A cradle-to-cradle comparative life cycle assessment.

Summary The accelerating pace of resource consumption threatens long-term availability of critical materials: those resources that play an essential role in modern society but are vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Established resource management strategies have struggled to reduce the risks of metal criticality, and the demand for these materials continues to grow. Circular economy offers a new paradigm for addressing metal criticality through solutions that enable material and product reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. However, products containing critical materials are rarely designed to be upgraded, reused, or disassembled at end of life to access the valuable materials contained within. Here, we explore the potential for design interventions across the technology life cycle that can enable circular economy solutions and minimize risks of material criticality.

The role of design in circular economy solutions for critical materials

As discussions around the circular economy (CE) start to move beyond Eurocentric approaches, US stakeholders are left with the mission of carving their way into CE. The US building sector h...

Fernanda Cruz Rios

Papers

Design for Disassembly and Deconstruction - Challenges and Opportunities

Reusing exterior wall framing systems: A cradle-to-cradle comparative life cycle assessment.

The role of design in circular economy solutions for critical materials

Barriers and Enablers to Circular Building Design in the US: An Empirical Study

The need for detailed gender-specific occupational safety analysis.