Circularity Is No Longer a Values Play. It’s Infrastructure.

For most of the past decade, circularity was treated as a brand value. Something you communicated in your sustainability report, demonstrated through a take-back scheme, and used to differentiate in a market where most competitors were not doing it.

That window is closing. Circularity is becoming infrastructure, and the brands that still treat it as optional positioning are going to find themselves on the wrong side of consumer expectation, legislation, and operational cost.

The Scale of the Problem Being Solved

A Special Eurobarometer survey found that 77% of EU consumers say they would rather repair their goods than buy new ones. Most end up replacing anyway, because repair is inconvenient and expensive relative to replacement. Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic’s Big Plastic Count 2024 found that only around 12% of what goes into UK recycling bins actually gets recycled. According to the UN and ITU Global E-Waste Monitor, e-waste is on track to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030, rising another 32% from current levels.

The gap between consumer intent and available infrastructure is enormous. That gap is an opportunity, and the brands and systems that close it will not just be doing good. They will be capturing significant value.

What Circularity as Infrastructure Actually Looks Like

Three signals point to where this is heading.

Nike’s BILL repair robot is an automated footwear refurbishment system that cleans, repairs, and restores used shoes at scale. It integrates refurbishment directly into Nike’s operational infrastructure rather than treating repair as a bespoke customer service.

Retuna in Sweden is a purpose-built shopping centre where donated goods are sorted, repaired, upcycled, and sold on-site by retailers and social enterprises. Collection, refurbishment, education, and resale happen in a single physical location. Circularity is the product, not an add-on.

TOMRA operates automated collection and sorting systems for plastics, metals, and packaging at consumer touchpoints globally. High-quality recycling becomes a built-in function of everyday consumption rather than a downstream afterthought.

What these have in common is that they do not ask consumers to sacrifice convenience. They make the circular option the easy option.

The Regulatory Direction of Travel

Extended Producer Responsibility schemes are now active in France, the EU, Canada, and South Korea, and expanding in US states. These require brands to manage end-of-life materials across textiles, electronics, packaging, batteries, and furniture.

Green New Deal initiatives taking shape globally are linking climate action to industrial renewal and infrastructure investment. The WEF’s key theme for 2026 is driving growth within planetary boundaries. The repair and maintenance market globally is forecast to grow from $1.58 trillion in 2024 to $2.34 trillion in 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7%.

The direction is unambiguous. The question for brands is not whether to engage with circular infrastructure but when, and whether they build their own, partner to access others’, or get pulled along by legislation.

The Brand Questions Worth Asking Now

What would a business model look like where maintenance, upcycling, recycling, and disposal scale with product sales? What storytelling opportunities emerge for your product when circularity becomes infrastructure rather than virtue? What partnerships would allow your brand to build a circular ecosystem around what you sell? How do you help customers find new homes for products they no longer want, and how do you turn that moment into a value-adding brand interaction rather than a loss?

As the Fellow Futures report ‘What Happens When People Buy Less?’ argues, the brands that will hold relevance are those that extend their relationship with customers beyond the transaction. These are not future questions. They are present ones, and the gap between brands asking them seriously and those still treating circularity as a marketing decision is widening fast.

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Next: The End of the Disposable Product looks at how longevity and product participation are reshaping the relationship between brands and the people who buy from them.