Impacts of Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing turns used, worn out components into products and parts that are as good as or better than new. The benefits of this process are numerous, giving each product a full new life cycle and saving the hundreds of steps it would take to create the same product from scratch.
Conservation of Materials
Remanufacturing reduces the amount of mining, transportation, and processing required to turn raw materials into a finished product. This will be of increasing importance as raw materials become scarcer and more expensive. Eliminating these steps encourages sustainability by conserving natural resources and reducing waste, pollution, and other environmental impacts.
Reduced Energy Consumption
By reducing or eliminating many energy-intensive steps in the production process, remanufacturing a product also requires significantly less energy than making the same product from scratch.
Reduced Waste
Manufacturing a product from scratch creates waste at each step of the process. Allowing a product to enter a full new life-cycle via remanufacturing not only saves that product from becoming waste, but also eliminates many of the waste-producing steps in the manufacturing process.
Reduced Costs & Lower Prices
Remanufacturing requires fewer raw materials, consumes less energy, and produces less waste than manufacturing a product from scratch. The consequent savings in each of these areas are significant, and most often result in a product of comparable quality that costs less for both the remanufacturer and the consumer.
Jobs Created
Remanufacturing supports approximately 180,000 full-time jobs in the United States, and more than 450,000 jobs world-wide. This growing industry encompasses a wide range of careers and skills, from technicians, engineers, and scientists, to designers and sales and marketing specialists.