As China's circular economy moves closer to consumers, companies are exploring how to design, use and keep products in service longer.
For an increasing number of Chinese consumers, buying something is no longer necessarily the end of the story.
An old appliance can be traded in rather than discarded. A used item can be sold to another consumer through a secondhand platform. Clothing can be repaired, resold, or repurposed. Products made with recycled materials are also becoming increasingly visible in the marketplace.
These changes point to a gradual shift in how the life of a product is viewed — from what happens before purchase to what happens after it leaves the store.
The shift is also gaining policy support. In July, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a plan to advance the country's circular economy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), setting targets and measures covering production, consumption, recycling, and resource utilization. The plan calls for wider adoption of green product design, greater use of recycled materials, more orderly secondhand-goods trading and improved recycling networks.
By 2030, the plan aims to raise China's major resource productivity by about 16 percent from 2025 levels, while targeting annual use of major renewable resources at 510 million metric tons.
The resource-recycling industry output is expected to reach 8 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion).
The NDRC says China's circular-economy strategy is moving toward a whole-chain approach, covering resource use at the production stage as well as consumption, reuse and recycling. At the same time, the commission acknowledges that problems remain, including gaps in recycling channels and technological bottlenecks.
Consumers, meanwhile, appear interested in the idea, although interest does not always translate into behavior.
A 2025 report by Euromonitor International, an independent market-intelligence provider, found that nearly 60 percent of Chinese consumers were concerned about climate change and were taking actions such as reducing food waste and plastic use. The report also identified "Zero Wasters" as the largest sustainable consumer group in China. The group includes consumers who seek to reduce waste through behaviors such as recycling, repairing, and buying secondhand goods.
Euromonitor's research suggests that sustainability is playing a growing role in Chinese consumers' product choices, but it is rarely enough on its own to determine what they buy. Consumers still expect products to deliver on performance, durability and value.
A 2026 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Sustainable Production and Consumption, based on a survey of 2,680 Chinese consumers, found that 21.7 percent were classified as "sustainable practitioners", who combined strong environmental motivation with sustainable clothing-disposal behavior. Another 25.6 percent were "blue intenders", who expressed strong environmental motivation but did not consistently translate it into action. In comparison, 52.8 percent were "non-motivated actors", whose behavior was more influenced by external incentives and opportunities than by environmental motivation.
Wen Zongguo, a professor at Tsinghua University, says extending the life of products is an important part of the circular economy.
During the use stage, products and components should be reused as many times and in as many ways as possible to extend their service life and prevent them from entering final disposal too early, he says.
Arc'teryx, the Canadian outdoor brand owned by Amer Sports, is offering Chinese buyers of its new Sperro SV hardshell jacket three years of unlimited ReBIRD repair services, extending the relationship with the product beyond the point of purchase.
The Sperro SV is the first product under the brand's System 0 circularity program. It is designed to be repaired when parts wear out. When it can no longer be repaired, it can be taken apart, so its specific nylon materials can be recovered for reuse through a chemical recycling process.
Arc'teryx started with a hardshell because it is one of the brand's most demanding products, says Andrew Yip, senior director of Materials, Arc'teryx Advanced Concepts.
"For this particular project, we wanted to make sure we weren't sacrificing performance to achieve circularity," Yip says.
The approach is being developed alongside ReBIRD, Arc'teryx's existing system for care, repair and rental. In the second quarter, the company added five ReBIRD service centers, bringing the global total to 47, according to parent company Amer Sports.
The expansion comes as Arc'teryx continues to grow rapidly in China. Amer Sports reported that its outdoor technical apparel segment, led by Arc'teryx, increased 32 percent year-on-year to $674 million in the second quarter, with an omnichannel comparable growth of 17 percent. Greater China continued to post strong growth and maintain strong profitability, the company said.
By the end of the quarter, Arc'teryx had about 140 stores in Greater China, including directly operated and franchised stores. The company plans to add 10 to 12 stores in the region this year.
For Dominique Showers, vice-president of ReBIRD, the repair network also provides a source of information for developing new products.
"Our team is taking gear apart, repairing it, and seeing firsthand where products hold up and where they don't," Showers says.
"What we learn when we're repairing products doesn't stay with ReBIRD. It goes straight back into how the next generation of products gets designed."
