Accounting for the environmental benefits of remanufactured products: Method and application

Abstract

Although the importance of reusing products has been stated frequently, both in legislation and by academics, the scientific literature does not provide comprehensive and systematic methods of assessing the reuse of a generic product from an environmental point of view. Moreover, the definitions of reuse provided in the literature and legislation are not always consistent. This article introduces an original classification of different types of reuse, including some suggested definitions. It then focuses on remanufacturing, a type of reuse in which a used product (or its components) is returned to at least its original performance level. The article describes the development of a method for assessing, from a life-cycle perspective, the potential environmental benefits of remanufacturing energy-related products. The method includes several novel aspects: it helps to analyse possible trade-offs between potential environmental impacts and energy efficiency; it allows the independent modelling of some parameters that influence product reuse; and it can be applied even at the early stages of the design process, when some specifications may not yet have been defined. The environmental impacts of a product's life-cycle stages are used as input parameters for the assessment. The method is then applied to an enterprise server, a case-study product for which remanufacturing is a current market practice. A sensitivity analysis is included to check how uncertainties could affect the overall results. The results of the case study show that remanufactured servers, even those that are less energy efficient, can have lower environmental impacts than new ones. For example, reusing some components (e.g. hard disk drives and memory cards) is environmentally beneficial even if the remanufactured server consumes up to 7% more energy than a newly manufactured server. The case study also demonstrates how the method proposed could be used in the context of product policy discussions.

A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Remanufacturing Research

“…The LCA method's shortcomings were also addressed. Ardente et al [135] utilized an LCA approach to assessing the environmental benefits of remanufacturing. A server was selected as a case-study product; it was reported that even though the remanufactured product consumes more energy for running, it is still environmentally beneficial.…”

Institutional, Technology, and Policies of End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling Industry and Its Indication on the Circular Economy- Comparative Analysis Between China and Japan

“…The GWP impact analysis refers to the international life cycle data system (International Reference Life Cycle Data System, 2010). The basic scenario is set as the GWP impact of a new engine (average weight 245 kg) produced during the life cycle (Ardente et al, 2018).…”

Is It Possible to Manage the Product Recovery Processes in an ERP? Analysis of Functional Needs

“…It has been distinguished the following recovery forms in accordance with the point of reentry in the value chain: Reuse, repair, restoration, remanufacture, cannibalization, recycling, energy recovery, and garbage dumps [36]. More recently, It was also identified remanufacturing, repair and recycling as product recovery options, and later, some different types of reuse have been defined [37,38].…”

“…Effective product returns and safe product relocation/disposal can reduce environmental harm and economic loss. Therefore, remanufacturing products have potential environmental benefits [38] and help industry to fall in line with sustainability objectives [2].…”

“…The parts with a slight fault can be mended, while those rejected given the bad state, they were in are scrapped. Some examples of such can be found in managing electrical appliances, photographic cameras, photocopiers, laptops or servers [37,38,44]. According to [44], three fundamental requirements can be found to adapt IS to disassembly management:…”