Over the course of the last several decades, an increase in the level of concern surrounding the various health and environmental consequences of current, popular waste disposal methods, including landfilling and incineration, have resulted in an increase in municipal recycling efforts. These efforts take place primarily at the residential and commercial levels, while the availability of recycling in public spaces like sidewalks, transit stops, parks and other areas is not something that is often encountered in cities around the United States. This thesis studies the implications and opportunities for public space recycling through the action research process during which I conducted case study research of existing public space recycling programs in Portland, Oregon, and New York, New York, alongside the planning and implementation of a pilot program for transit stop recycling in Austin, Texas. The aim of this thesis is to examine and establish various goals and common strategies for the implementation of public space recycling programs and ultimately make a case for this arguably invaluable, yet often overlooked, recycling initiative. Working under the theoretical framework of the urban metabolism and Karl Marx’s theory of the metabolic rift, the reimagining of waste disposal practices to include widespread materials recycling is one avenue for the restructuring of the relationship between the city and the natural environment. The expansion of recycling practices into public spaces forwards the overall mission to make recycling an integral part of daily life. If implemented properly, the widespread implementation of recycling programs like public space recycling could begin to heal the fragmented urban metabolism and ensure the longevity of the ever-evolving urban and natural environments. The conclusions of this research revolve around the importance of context for public space (and other) recycling practices. This research shows that for public space recycling to succeed as a strategy for the mainstreaming of recycling practices and the reparation of the metabolic rift, the unique characteristics of each individual public space must be taken into consideration upon the implementation of a public space recycling program. / text

In-situ resource utilization and in-situ manufacturing are being actively pursued as ways to enhance the development of human activities in space. However, the re-purpose of space systems through processes like recycling, re-manufacturing, and re-use, has not received the attention it deserves given its potential to reduce the waste generated by human activities in space, improve the sustainability of space habitats, and reduce the environmental impact on Earth of human activities in space.  This dissertation explores the available life cycle analysis methodologies in order to understand how the industry treats and measures re-purposability, and what re-purposing enabling technologies are available or under development, and proposes the use of the embodied energy and derived metrics to: quantify the waste generated by a space system when reaches its end of life, how re-purposable a space system is, and how valuable the outputs of the re-purposing process are for the habitat were the system is being processed. This data can then used to provide feedback regarding manufacturing process and material selection for the design, enabling a systems architect to optimize it with re-purposability in mind.  This Design to Re-purpose methodology (DTR) is tested through the analysis of selected components of an Lunar Habitat design from Hassell Studios, to the extend possible given the early state of the design, and with some assumptions regarding the expected repurposing technologies available. It demonstrated that performs as expected for the scenario provided, and yielded useful material selection feedback, including how the value of the re-purposing output material can infuence the design to optimize its re-purposability and the subsequent value it provides to the habitat.  Further development of this methodology is necessary, as well as additional testing especially considering scenarios where the initial system is not built on Earth, for which a preliminary road map was laid down.