Material Selection and Material Use are both possible routes to reduce environmental impact and improve the sustainability of new products, this can be done by:

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• Utilizing recycled material where feasible (especially on internal components)

• Sourcing recycled or sustainable alternatives to materials
  (e.g. switching to RPET instead of Nylon fabrics or plant-based leathers instead of animal hide

• Avoiding over molds of different materials which cannot be recycled

• Utilizing single materials for the majority of a product for easy recycling

 

The most difficult part about the above is that doing so will increase the unit cost of a product, however, it is the trend that is only increasing in intensity that people will pay more for a quality product they can say is eco-friendly and the marketing and trending of products is much easier that can sustain and prove this claim, as such the short term view of slightly higher unit price can be mitigated with long term product viability and an extended lifecycle