This course invites students passionate about sustainable design to explore the principles and politics of circular economies while participating in an ecological restoration project transforming “invasive” plants into useful products. Through field trips, expert lectures, and independent and collaborative projects, we will become familiar with life cycle assessments and other metrics, multi-stakeholder frameworks, circular economy business plans, criticisms around scale, waste, and degrowth, and ways to better incorporate equity, inclusion, and social justice into circular economies. Participants will examine case studies, prototype designs using New York plant biomaterials, and design proposals for specific contexts meaningful to their own backgrounds and practices. While broadening ecological literacies and sharpening design instincts, this immersive experience at the intersection of design, ecology, and community impact will help prepare designers for critical analysis and real-world implementation of circular models as part of the urgent project of designing alternative economies.