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The circular economy is a social, technological and economic paradigm that aims to build a production and consumption model focused on waste reduction and maximization of discarded matter recovery. Discussion of the circular economy often treats it as a technocratic and profit-driven phenomenon that can be developed by capital investment in a particular industrial sector without necessarily taking into account the needs of the surrounding geographic area. The promotion of the circular economy often emphasises recycling and other practices that may not fully use the recovered material but are highly automatable, thus creating only a limited number of jobs. At the same time, there is another model of the circular economy, in which small and medium-sized organizations engage in transformative and low-technology activities such as reuse and repair, benefiting local development and creating job opportunities. This model is often explicitly driven by a social development mandate. Still, it risks falling short of its goals because of a lack of expertise and a less systematic approach. This paper aims to introduce the Design-led Repair & Reuse (DLRR) framework for mitigating the shortcomings of this second model, using an approach that is both sustainable and accessible to organizations with limited resources. Inspired by the principles of "Design-driven innovation", "social & solidarity economy", and "appropriate technology", DLRR aims to generate a higher quality of processes and products from circular, low entropy and low capital-intensity production activities, resulting in a more solid, identifiable and conscious positioning in the reuse market. It complements the socially inclusive ethos of these third sector small and medium-sized organizations while contributing to the debate on integrating alternative perspectives into the mainstream circular economy discourse. The first part of this paper discusses the theoretical principles that have inspired the DLRR framework. The second part presents research that tests the consistency of these founding principles based on a case study of a sample of organizations in Italy that are active in circular waste transformation processes. • The circular economy is an emerging paradigm in the race to achieve environmental sustainability. • Mainstream discourse on circular economy often does not focus on the social dimension of sustainability. • This discourse often interprets circular economy in a technocratic way, emphasizing high-tech, capital intensive approaches. • Reuse and repair practices are more technologically accessible, and can foster the creation of job opportunities. • A Design-led reuse and repair approach can contribute to strenghten the social dimension of circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is among the major producers of dimension stones and a world leader in terms of technologies for stone quarrying, cutting and finishing. In the current context of European Environmental and Raw Material policies, the stone sector is expected to enhance its overall sustainability and circularity. Previous studies have used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental performance of stone production, along the supply chain. Nevertheless, despite the fairly high level of maturity in terms of methodology, previous LCA studies have highlighted the scarce availability of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets related to stone sector technologies, which inevitably required the introduction of heavy simplifications. The present paper contributes to fill these gaps by providing detailed LCI datasets of the most common technologies and tools for stone quarrying, cutting and finishing. Datasets have been developed on the basis of primary data provided by three major Italian producers of cutting tools, complemented with secondary data from literature, where necessary. Moreover, modelling parameters have been set to enable the datasets update or their adaptation to specific production chains of the stone or other sectors. "Supplementary Material" provides details on the analysed technologies and on the related datasets (data sources, functional unit, system boundaries, Life Cycle models, parameters and uncertainty). Finally, LCI datasets are provided in file format as well. Image 1 • Life Cycle Inventory datasets on dimension stone technologies and tools. • LCI on explosives, abrasive technologies and intermediate products. • Inventory of technologies widely employed in stone and other sectors. • Parameters to adapt LCI datasets to specific technologies/tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]