Across many industries, product designers are paying increasing attention to material composition. The reason is simple: decisions made during product development influence what options may be available once a product reaches the end of its service life.
One concept receiving growing attention is mono-material design.
What is a mono-material product?
A mono-material product is designed around a single material family rather than a combination of different materials.
This approach is becoming increasingly common in sectors such as packaging, automotive manufacturing and consumer products, where material transparency and future processing possibilities are receiving greater attention.
Why material simplicity matters
Products made from multiple materials often require additional processing steps to identify, separate and manage different material streams.
By reducing material complexity, mono-material products create a more consistent material structure throughout the product.
This can provide advantages in areas such as:
- Material identification
- Product documentation
- Traceability
- Material processing
- Design for Recycling
As a result, many manufacturers are increasingly considering material simplicity during the design phase rather than only at the end of a product’s lifecycle.
Material value retention
One of the key objectives of Design for Recycling is to preserve as many future material options as possible.
When products are developed using a consistent material structure, material quality can often be retained more effectively than in products containing multiple material types.
For this reason, industries worldwide are exploring ways to reduce material complexity and improve transparency regarding product composition.
Examples from other industries
The move towards mono-material design is visible across a range of sectors.
- Packaging: Many packaging manufacturers are redesigning products to reduce the number of materials used within a single package, making material composition easier to identify and manage.
- Sportswear: Brands such as Adidas and Nike have explored mono-material concepts as part of broader efforts to simplify product structures and improve material traceability.
- Automotive: Automotive manufacturers are increasingly evaluating material selection strategies to support future material recovery and processing objectives.
The ONE-DNA™ approach
ONE-DNA™ applies the same design philosophy to artificial grass.
Traditional artificial grass systems often combine multiple polymers and materials within a single product structure. ONE-DNA™ is developed around a mono-material polyethylene design, creating a consistent material composition throughout the product.
This approach focuses on:
- Material transparency
- Product traceability
- Design for Recycling principles
- Simplified material composition
- Documented product information
Looking ahead
The discussion around mono-material design is ultimately a discussion about product development.
As regulations, documentation requirements and material transparency expectations continue to evolve, the importance of understanding what products are made from is likely to increase.
By considering material composition at the design stage, manufacturers can create products that offer greater transparency and support a wider range of future material pathways.
Update, October 2026: this article reflects the ONE-DNA™ range at the time of publication, based on polyethylene (PE). ONE-DNA™ now also includes a 100% PO route; see Technology for the current material routes.
Related: Technology · Sustainability
