Which process establishes guidelines to standardize the manufacture of materials and products in order to facilitate efficient recycling?

• A. Secondary Recycling (Open-Loop Recycling)
• B. Design for Recovery
• C. Remediation
• D. Mass Burn

Answer: (B)

Design for Recovery focuses on creating guidelines during product design and manufacturing so that materials are easy to recycle at end of life. By choosing compatible, common materials, designing for easy disassembly, and avoiding hard-to-separate or multi-material combinations, products become simpler to sort, separate, and reprocess. This reduces contamination, streamlines recycling streams, and supports reuse or repurposing of components. Clear material choices and standardized packaging, adhesives, and labeling further ensure recyclers can efficiently process streams without guesswork or complex separation steps.

Secondary recycling describes turning recycled materials into new products but doesn’t set design standards for the original manufacturing process. Remediation is about cleaning up contaminated sites. Mass burn is incineration of waste for energy, not recycling design guidelines.