Case Study
Generation of knowledge and standards for secondary material use by remanufacturing labs
The Challenge
To achieve a more resource efficient economy, production and waste management systems need to change to allow for a significant increase in material recovery. Sustainable waste management practices have long striven to incorporate recycling as desirable end-of-life treatment, but failed to include also remanufacturing as an alternative. The amount of materials recovered through remanufacturing, repair and reuse are largely unknown, with the exception of specific second hand markets and high value product groups. There is a need for a better understanding the remanufacturing potential present in the materials that are currently discarded as waste in cities.
What we want to achieve
The project wishes to set up remanufacturing labs to increase the use of secondary materials in cities, helping to generate knowledge and standards for secondary material use. The pathfinder project is undertaking the preliminary work to establish two to four pilot Centers for Urban Remanufacture (CUREs). This will be done by: 1) Reviewing initiatives that have inspired the CURE idea to learn how they operate and what difficulties they have, 2) Doing a market analysis for the CURE idea in Berlin and Gothenburg, and 3) Helping to build local consortsiums interested in CUREs.
Partners
TU Berlin, Chalmers University, Gothenburg Municipality, Material Mafia