What Happens to the Material: Recycling, Reuse, and the Intellectual Property of the Circular Economy
By Casey Scott McKay ·
The circular economy runs on other people's discarded products, which puts it in permanent contact with rights that were never designed for a second life. This article works through the four places where intellectual property and materials recovery actually meet: the technology that sorts and reprocesses, the claims a recycler makes about what it produced, the rights that survive when a product is refurbished rather than destroyed, and the contracts that move feedstock between parties who each think they own it. It explains why exhaustion and the repair doctrine do most of the work, why the Green Guides constrain marketing more tightly than trademark law does, and why certification marks are the sector's most underused instrument. It closes with the practical asymmetry that shapes every negotiation in the field.
IP and Technology > General IP | Article | Published 10 November 2025 - Updated 11 June 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
An industry built on other people's things
Almost every business acquires its inputs by buying them from someone who wanted to sell. The recycling and reuse sector acquires its inputs by collecting things people wanted to be rid of, which sounds like a smaller distinction than it is.
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