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Ontology & Definitions

Dictionary page with insect line art, background. Smattering of brass escutcheon pins, foreground.
Dictionary page with insect line art, background. Smattering of brass escutcheon pins, foreground.

Reuse-only

reuse-only adj. \ ˈrē-ˌyüs-ˈōn-lē \

1: constrained to the use of existing material stocks; excluding interventions whose execution intentionally initiates upstream industrial manufacture

2: of, relating to, or conducted under an experimental condition in which industrial manufacture is unavailable as an intervention

In The Reuse Project: Reuse-only defines an experimental boundary, not an optimization target or preference. The constraint is used to investigate the capabilities, methods, economics, and institutions that emerge when society works exclusively with material resources that already exist.

Out of scope: An intervention falls outside the reuse-only research condition when its successful execution depends upon intentionally initiating upstream industrial manufacture.