Designing a product is one thing. Making sure its materials keep their value at the end of its useful life is another.

Many products are difficult or expensive to recycle because the critical decisions were made long before the product reached the market. Materials were combined in ways that are hard to separate, components were permanently bonded, or recyclability was never part of the design brief.

These problems are much easier to address early. The right material choices, product architecture and joining methods can decide whether a product can be recovered or becomes waste.

My aim is simple: to keep materials in the economy and out of landfill.

It is also becoming a commercial question. Governments and large industrial buyers increasingly ask for circular solutions in their tenders, and a company that can show what happens to its product at the end of its life often has the stronger proposition.

I help businesses assess these decisions: reviewing an existing design, evaluating material options, finding what stands in the way of recycling, or building recyclability into a new product from the start. After years of building yachts and developing composites designed for repeated recycling, I know that a circular solution has to work technically, mechanically and commercially. It is not enough for something to be recyclable in theory. There has to be a realistic way to recover its value.

If you have a product or material challenge, get in touch. Tell me what you are building, what materials you use and what you want to achieve, and we will look at the most practical next step.