Remanufacturing- a feasible way to save environment?

Article- TIMES, manufacturing(23/7/07)

Remanufacturing is one method to revive machinery, be it vehicles, copiers, compressors or even mobile phones. What it does is to dismantle the unused product and those parts which are salvageable are either cleaned or refurbished. These parts are ready to be reassembled to form the original product with the addition of some new parts. With remanufacturing, the product could have a life extension of many more years. As stated by a University of Bayreuth study, the amount of raw materials saved annually by remanufacturing is 14 million tons. Hence, this technology would look enticing to environmentalist, especially in a world where raw materials are scarce and limited .

However, there are also the problem of profitability for the companies that go into such remanufacturing businesses. As stated from the article, this technology minimised the material costs to 40%, as compared to 70% for a new product and the energy costs is 85% lower than in making new products. In addition, these products can be sold at prices 50-60% cheaper than new products.

Hence, with the environmental and economic advantages of remanufacturing as well as the cheaper price for consumers, which guarantee a demand for such products, remanufacturing is definitely one feasible way to save the environment.