Circularity is an appealing idea: make something useful, keep using it, and put its materials to work again when its life is over. I want to understand what it takes to make that happen in practice.

That is the starting point for Material Progress. I’m Mike Hansen, founder of the Infinite Awards. The awards will recognize companies making progress toward a circular, zero-waste future. This publication gives me a place to investigate the larger question: is circularity really possible?

I don’t want to decide the answer before having the conversations.

Follow one thing through its life

A useful place to begin is a single product or material. Who makes it? Who uses it? What happens when it breaks, becomes inconvenient, or is no longer wanted?

Consider a refillable container. I’d want to know how often it comes back, how many times it can be used, what cleaning and transport require, and what happens to the containers that never return. Those questions turn a promising design into something we can examine.

For a repair business, the questions might be different. Are parts available? Can the repair be done at a price people will pay? How much longer does the product stay in use afterward? Where is repair still impractical?

These are starting questions for interviews, not findings about particular companies. The answers need to come from people doing the work and the evidence they can share.

Ask what makes it work

I want to talk about the economics as well as the materials. Who pays for collection, repair, sorting, or storage? What has to happen for the service to keep running? What would another business need to copy it?

I also want to hear about attempts that fell short. A system may depend on a return rate it cannot reach, a supplier it cannot find, or infrastructure that is available in one place but absent elsewhere. Understanding those conditions is useful, even when the result is disappointing.

The answer to our central question may turn out to be specific: possible for this product, in this place, under these conditions. I’d rather understand those conditions than settle for a broad claim.

Two ways to learn from the work

The Infinite Awards and Material Progress have connected purposes. The awards bring attention to an achievement. The interviews make room for questions that remain open.

An interview is not an endorsement or a step someone must complete to be considered for an award. Guests should be able to discuss a failure, a tradeoff, or a reason for doubt without having to turn the conversation into an application.

I’m starting with a small program I can give proper attention to: one award in the first annual cycle, and interviews published when they are ready. As the project grows, the aim is to build a useful record of what people have learned about keeping products and materials in use.

If you have direct experience with a product, process, or system we should examine, suggest a conversation. Tell me what you’ve tried, what surprised you, or which question you think deserves a better answer.