1. Adopt the cascade approach:
• Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower mechanical requirements
• Arrange and facilitate recycling of materials in components with lower aesthetical requirements
• Arrange and facilitate energy recovery from materials throughout combustion

2. Select materials with most efficient recycling technologies
• Select materials that easily recover after recycling the original performance characteristics
• Avoid composite materials or, when necessary, choose easily recyclable ones
• Engage geometrical solutions like ribbing to increase polymer stiffness instead of reinforcing fibres
• Prefer thermoplastic polymers to fireproof additives
• Design considering the secondary use of the materials once recycled

3. Facilitate end-of-life collection and transportation
• Design in compliance with product retrieval system
• Minimize overall weight
• Minimize cluttering and improve stackability of discarded products
• Design for compressibility of discarded products
• Provide the user with information about the disposing modalities of the product or its parts

4. Material identification
• Codify different materials to facilitate their identification
• Provide additional information about the material’s age, number of times recycled in the past and additives used
• Indicate the existence of toxic or harmful materials
• Use standardized materials identification systems
• Arrange codification in easily visible places
• Avoid codifying after component production stages

5. Minimize the number of different incompatible materials
• Integrate functions to reduce the overall number of materials and components
• Monomaterial strategy: only one material per product or per sub-assembly
• Use only one material, but processed in sandwich structures
• Use compatible materials (that could be recycled together) within the product or sub-assembly
• For joining use the same or compatible materials as in components (to be joined)

6. Facilitate cleaning
• Avoid unnecessary coating procedures
• Avoid irremovable coating materials
• Facilitate removal of coating materials
• Use coating procedure compliant with coating materials
• Avoid adhesives or choose ones that comply with materials to be recycles
• Prefer the dyeing of internal polymers, rather than surface painting
• Avoid using additional materials for marking or codification
• Mark and codify materials during moulding
• Codify polymers using laser

7. Facilitate composting
• Select materials that degrade in the expected end-of-life environement
• Avoid combining non-degradable materials with products that are going to be composted
• Facilitate the separation of non-degradable materials

8. Facilitate combustion
• Select high energy materials for products that are going to be incinerated
• Avoid materials that emit dangerous substance during incineration
• Avoid additives that emit dangerous substance during incineration
• Facilitate the separation of materials that would compromise the efficiency of combustion (with low energy value)