Before a product is made, design choices have already shaped much of its end-of-life fate. Material simplicity, performance, and the realities of secondary feedstock must sit alongside creative ambition. How can a product's circular materials become part of its appeal rather than a compromise? And what must designers understand about the systems expected to recover them? • Which design-stage choices decide whether a product can be recycled? • How can designers balance creative ambition and performance with material simplicity and variable secondary feedstock? • What makes circular materials desirable to customers?