Repair • Reuse • Recycle
2026
Design Thinking Award
Winner
Tunis Circular Design Collective (TCDC)
Designers / Creators / Authors / Leaders
Amira Ben Youssef, Youssef Trabelsi, Leila Hammami, Karim Ben Salem
The Repair • Reuse • Recycle Initiative is a design thinking project developed by the Tunis Circular Design Collective (TCDC), a student-led design community working across universities in Tunisia. The project addresses the growing issue of waste accumulation, limited repair culture, and the lack of structured circular economy systems in urban and outlying areas.
In many Tunisian cities, usable goods are frequently discarded due to low repair accessibility and limited awareness of reuse networks. At the same time, informal repair knowledge exists but remains fragmented and undervalued.
The initiative builds a community-driven system that connects citizens, repair workshops, and student designers to extend product lifecycles through structured repair, reuse, and recycling pathways.
It was co-designed through fieldwork with local residents, including Amira Ben Youssef, Youssef Trabelsi, Leila Hammami, and Karim Ben Salem, who highlighted the cost burden of replacement culture and the absence of accessible repair services in their communities.
Students from TCDC operate as facilitators, designers, and system coordinators, helping map materials, design service flows, and support community engagement.
The project applies design thinking by reframing waste not as an endpoint but as a design opportunity within a circular local ecosystem. It strengthens community resilience, reduces environmental impact, and promotes practical sustainability education.
By linking citizens, informal repair knowledge, and structured design intervention, the initiative demonstrates how circular economy systems can emerge from everyday community practices rather than top-down infrastructure.
The Repair • Reuse • Recycle Initiative positions Tunisia as a living laboratory for scalable, human-centered circular design in North Africa.
