What Circular Design Means in 2025—and Why It’s Finally Real

Back in the day when we started Green Prophet, “circular design” was a new buzzword and mostly just a slide in a PowerPoint deck—something sustainability consultants pitched people who knew nothing. In 2025, it’s different. Circular design isn’t just theory now—it’s practice. It’s policy in some of the boldest companies, cities, and thinkers who are reshaping the future.

The post What Circular Design Means in 2025—and Why It’s Finally Real appeared first on Green Prophet.

Blue City, smart city, renewable energy city: Rotterdam has it all

Back in the day when we started Green Prophet, “circular design” was a new buzzword and mostly just a slide in a PowerPoint deck—something sustainability consultants pitched people who knew nothing. In 2025, it’s different. Circular design isn’t just theory now—it’s practice. It’s policy in some of the boldest companies, cities, and thinkers who are reshaping the future.

The idea’s simple, at least on paper: instead of designing products that end up as waste, we design them to stay in circulation. You don’t throw it out—you fix it, rework it, compost it, or break it down for parts. But circularity today goes far beyond recycling. It’s about designing out waste from the very beginning—and building systems that restore, not just reduce.

Here’s what circular design actually looks like now—and where it’s heading.

We start with taking things apart: Literally. In a world full of glued-shut gadgets and planned obsolescence, modularity is the quiet revolution. Look at the Fairphone 5, made in the Netherlands. It’s not flashy. But if your camera breaks or your battery dies, you can swap them out with a screwdriver. That’s the whole point. No Genius Bar. No landfill. Dutch common sense. That’s my ancestry.