Responsibility of users in a circular economy and implications for designers: a discussion paper

This paper contributes to the debate on user responsibility in a circular economy. It discusses the responsibility of users (for instance related to product care and product end-of-use) in various circular business models and consider show designers can help users fulfil the irresponsibility. The paper explores two extreme conceptions of user responsibility: high user responsibility that typically occurs in classic sales models, and low user responsibility, for instance in product-as-a-service models. Potential directions are given to designers to stimulate care, maintenance, repair and circular end-of-use paths without scaring off or punishing users.