It’s a common misconception: recycling is circular, so we’re doing a good job. That’s not entirely untrue, but it’s an oversimplification. Recycling only begins once a product or material has already been discarded. Through source separation or post-separation, materials are collected and recycled wherever possible—such as returnable cans, waste paper, and plastic packaging. In this way, waste becomes a raw material again. But here’s the catch: for most materials, that process isn’t infinite. Ultimately, they still end up as waste.
The R-ladder illustrates this clearly. This ranking lists strategies from most to least circular: the higher the step you choose, the fewer new raw materials you consume. Let’s dive deeper into that.
In a circular economy, products and materials aren’t thrown away after use but are reused over and over again. This is the opposite of a linear economy, in which we extract raw materials, make a product, and then throw it away.
Why recycling ranks low on the R-ladder
The R-ladder consists of 10 steps. Recycling is on the ninth step, with step 10 considered the least circular. Thus, the R-ladder views recycling as a lower-value solution within the circular economy. Whereas steps like Repair and Reuse, for example, keep a smartphone or jacket intact, recycling breaks the product down into pulp, shreds, or pellets. The materials are reduced to their basic raw materials, and that requires a lot of energy.
In addition, the quality of the material is lost. This is clearly evident with office paper. White printer paper consists of long, strong fibers. During recycling, this paper is ground into pulp, causing the fibers to become shorter and weaker with each cycle. As the quality declines, at some point it can no longer be used to make new white paper: the material is then used for lower-value products, such as cardboard boxes or egg cartons. After typically about five recycling cycles, the fibers are too short and too weak to be processed further, and the material ultimately ends up as waste.
Downcycling is circularity on hold
The example of white printer paper being turned into egg cartons is a form of downcycling: a specific type of recycling in which the material, after processing, has a lower quality and economic value than the original product. As such, downcycling is a form of deferred circularity—or perhaps, more accurately, delayed linearity.
Admittedly, the material does make an extra “round” in the economy, which delays the cutting of new trees and causes the waste pile to grow just a little slower today. But because paper fibers cannot be reused indefinitely, new trees will ultimately still need to be cut down to produce new white paper. After about five recycling cycles, the fibers are completely depleted, and the material still ends up as unusable waste.
But what, then, is truly circular?
Glass can be remelted indefinitely without any loss of quality. An old glass jar, once melted down, becomes a brand-new glass jar again, with exactly the same strength and clarity. That’s what circularity is all about: preserving the highest possible value of a material or product without it becoming waste.
Is recycling, then, linear?
Not entirely, but the difference is smaller than the term “circular” might suggest. Within the circular economy, recycling is seen as a last resort: better than throwing things away, but with drawbacks that true circularity seeks to avoid. For example, recycling reduces the quality of the material, as is the case with printer paper. In addition, recycling often still requires the addition of new, clean raw materials to maintain usable quality. In a circular system, on the other hand, all raw materials are preserved and nothing is lost.
That’s not to say we should stop recycling. On the contrary, as Gijs Derks, Managing Director of Milgro, points out in the Financieele Dagblad:
“Recycling is indispensable. But a circular economy doesn’t start at the trash can. It starts at the drawing board. Recycling focuses on the end of the chain, while the real gains are to be found at the beginning. My urgent request to the business community: design products so that raw materials can be easily extracted during recycling. Anything you laminate or combine—such as packaging with a
aluminum layer—will become non-recyclable waste tomorrow. So don’t design for the next recycling cycle, but for infinite reuse.”
Recycling, therefore, is not circular: it only comes into play once a product has already become waste, and downcycling ultimately ends up as waste anyway, albeit via a detour. That doesn’t mean we should stop recycling, because it remains indispensable. True circularity, however, requires circular design at the drawing board: don’t design for the next, temporary recycling cycle, but for products made for infinite reuse.
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