Material Progress

Is circularity
really possible?

Conversations with the people trying to make it work. Follow the products, the materials, and the economics—and ask where the loop still breaks.

A new publication

The first conversations are ahead.

New conversations will be published here as they’re ready. Have direct experience with repair, reuse, or material recovery? We’d like to hear what you’ve tried and what you’ve learned.

Suggest a Conversation

Where does the loop break?

We will follow a product or material through its actual use, return, repair, and recovery. What stays useful? What is lost? Who pays to keep the system working?

Successes, failed attempts, and practical limits all belong in the conversation. An answer might be conditional: it works for this material, at this scale, with this infrastructure. The goal is to understand those conditions.

Questions we want to explore

  • Can a product be circular if people do not return it?
  • Can repair become the normal choice?
  • Can the same material keep coming back?

These are starting questions for future conversations. We want to hear from the people doing the work, including those who have found reasons an approach does not work yet.

Inquiry and recognition

Material Progress investigates the possibility. The Infinite Awards recognize demonstrated progress. Being interviewed is not an endorsement or a promise of an award.