Original Paper
DOI : https://doi.org/10.4491/KSEE.2016.38.11.611

J Korean Soc Environ Eng. 2016; 38(11): 611-617.

Published online 2016 November 30.

doi: https://doi.org/10.4491/KSEE.2016.38.11.611

Environmental Evaluation for the Remanufacturing of Rental Product Using the LCA Methodology

In-Ho Kwak¹, Young-Woo Hwang⁴, Kwang-Ho Park², Ji-Hyoung Park², So-Young Seol³, Hwa-Jeong Shin², Eun-Hyeok Yang⁵, and Gon-Sik Min⁵

¹Program in ET & ST, Inha University Graduate School
²Research Center of Sustainable Strategy, YESSorg Co., Ltd
³Research Center of environment, Inha University
⁴Department of Environmental Engineering, Inha University
⁵Production Operation Department, Cowey Co., Ltd

Corresponding Author: Email: toyess@yess.or.kr

Received 2016 July 25;    Accepted 2016 November 21.

Remanufacturing that is the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product by collecting used-product, completely disassembling, cleaning and repairing or replacing with a new part and reassembling has been received attention in aspects of resource, recycling because it is a great environmental improvement. Remanufacturing is the rebuilding of a product to specifications of the original manufactured product by collecting used-product, completely disassembling, cleaning and repairing or replacing with a new part and reassembling. With a great environmental improvement and resource recycling and conservation, many studies were conducted. Up to date, remanufacturing activities are mainly applied to automobile parts and printer toner cartridge in South Korea. However, remanufacturing of rental product is not well conducted although rental products are collected in good condition and could be remanufactured in the same condition as a new product. Therefore, in this study, we conducted life cycle assessment (LCA) to an air cleaner product that is one of rental products. This study attempts to identify the processes in new products and remanufacturing life cycles that contribute the most environmental impacts. The results show that air cleaner remanufacturing could reduce about 20% of environmental impacts compared to new product. The greatest benefit related to environmental impact is with regard to ozone layer depletion potential (ODP), which is reduced by 94%. In the life cycle of air cleaner, raw material extraction stage had the most environmental impacts, especially with regard to abiotic depletion potential (ADP) and global warming potential (GWP). In the environmental impacts in each part, the ABS power had the highest environmental impacts.

Keywords : Remanufacturing, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Rental Product, Environmental Evaluation