Circularity.fm

Not every product can be recovered, reused or recycled. So where can companies find opportunities for circularity? Catherine Weetman, author of A Circular Economy Handbook and host of the Circular Economy Podcast, discusses how businesses can create and retain more value from their resources, even in challenging markets. What you'll hear in this episode: • Endurance, intensity and recovery: Three strategies for getting more value from products and materials, including Return on Manufactured Assets (ROMA). • What customers really value: The overlooked costs of constant product innovation, from inventory and product write-offs to customer churn. • Circular opportunities across the value network: From adhesives that could enable remanufacturing to electrical equipment designed for reliability and repair. This is the first episode of our four-part series Circular Business Model Books.

If remanufactured IT can offer the same warranties and support as new equipment at a lower price, why businesses still prefer to buy new? Anthony Levy, founder of Circularity First and CEO of Cistor, built a business selling remanufactured IT equipment through Cisco Refresh. He shares how he developed customer demand and why adoption remains limited despite the commercial benefits. What you'll hear in this episode: • The business case for remanufactured IT: Beyond lower purchase prices, companies can extend the life of existing platforms and improve supply chain resilience. • Overcoming customer resistance: Why perceived risks and established purchasing habits matter, and how discounts, product testing and low-risk deployments help build trust. • Getting the sales system to support remanufacturing: How sales incentives that favor new products and unpredictable stock availability can limit adoption, even when customer demand exists. This is the fifth and final episode of our B2B Take Back series.

Which products are worth refurbishing, and how can manufacturers get them back in usable condition? Julie Fournier, responsible for circular economy at Legrand, and Kevin Chen, Director of Consulting at Circul'R, discuss how to select the right circular strategies for different products and organize take-back systems across a portfolio of more than 300,000 product references. What you'll hear in this episode: • How to identify products suitable for refurbishment, considering customer demand, product value and design for disassembly • How to balance collection volumes and product quality by combining EPR systems with direct take-back • How product mix, shared infrastructure and aligned incentives affect the economic viability of take-back systems at scale The conversation also covers product-as-a-service as a potential alternative for retaining access to products, and the challenge of sharing data across companies while protecting commercially sensitive information. This is the fourth episode of our B2B Take-Back series.

Wilo's take-back system works without contracts, deposits or payments. Instead, the company focuses on making returns as simple as possible for installers. And that works. Thomas Fetting, explains how the company collects used pumps and brings recovered components and materials back into production. What you'll hear in this episode: • How to motivate participation in take-back systems without financial incentives • How manufacturers can recover and reintegrate components and materials into production • What determines the economic viability and scalability of reverse logistics This is the third episode of the B2B Take-Back series. You can find its original recording in German on YouTube. The audio-only version has been translated to English with the use of AI.

Remanufacturing depends on getting used products back. Can a deposit system give customers an incentive to return them? Thomas Meyer, responsible for remanufacturing, repair and reuse activities within Knorr-Bremse TruckServices, explains how Knorr-Bremse uses a core deposit in the independent aftermarket to bring parts back for remanufacturing. What you'll hear in this episode: • Why the deposit value is linked to the market value of the core, and how returning an equivalent product keeps parts flowing back • What happens to returned cores, from assessing and disassembling them to deciding which components can be reused, reconditioned or replaced • Which data and systems are needed to manage remanufacturing, including core return rates, regeneration rates and ERP processes for products coming back The conversation also covers the economics of remanufactured parts for older vehicles, design for remanufacturing and the challenge of reducing manual work in disassembly. This is the second episode of our B2B Take-Back series.