The is described in industry literature as a closed loop of materials.
In practice most recycling is a , since each cycle lowers quality.
Paper fibres shorten, plastics lose strength and mixed cannot be separated at a reasonable cost.
A bottle rarely becomes a bottle; it becomes fibre, then filler, then waste.
Recognising this shifts attention from the end of life to the design stage.
Two products with the same use can differ by ten times in how they are.
Glue instead of screws, several plastics instead of one, and circuits bonded to a case all close the loop.
Regulation has therefore moved earlier, towards standards.
Extended producer responsibility puts the disposal cost on the company that made the decision.
When the fee varies with , design changes within a product cycle.
When it is a flat levy, nothing changes except the price.
Repair and reuse sit above recycling in every serious , and below it in every budget.
Recycling is visible, municipal and easy to photograph; repair is spread out and hard to count.
A serious circular policy would fund repair networks and measure the mass that never entered the waste stream.
That number is harder to produce and is the only one that describes the goal.