Producing eco-value for a recycling-based society by industrial design

This paper proposes a new reproduction system model utilizing industrial design methodology. The aim of the system is to create new valuable products out of reclaimed materials or by reusing waste articles and parts. In general, recycled materials are regarded to be inferior in quality and reproduced products are less valuable. But, if this is true, so-called recycling-based society must be a society where everything is gradually loosing its quality and value by reiterating recycling, which doesn´t seem to be sustainable at all. The basic requisite for realizing sustainable recycling-based culture is to find a way to produce new value, which is defined as Eco-value in this paper, through reproduction process. Some concrete projects are introduced to help vision for the goal emerge. The largest question is how to design a flexible manufacturing system corresponding to a great variety of materials in a small and middle size quantity