The consideration of design, manufacturing and recycling in a holistic fashion offers an opportunity to push the boundaries of research and innovation. By replicating environments, processes, and phenomena in virtual settings, scientists and engineers can simulate complex scenarios with precision and efficiency. This opens new avenues for experimentation, discovery, and problem-solving. As technology continues to advance, digitalization approaches are well poised to revolutionize how we invent sustainable products and optimize processes, thus promising exciting prospects for future scientific endeavors. The creation of these digital recycling ecosystems will require the integration of different modeling tools (applied at different scales).