Development Of Optimized Cost Models for Recycling and Remanufacturing - A Step Towards Circular Economy

Sammanfattning: Resource consumption is becoming increasingly scarce with an increase in the global population. Due to the increased resource consumption, the current linear economy model is unsustainable in the way it operates. The limitations of the linear economic model have been at the forefront to aspire circular economy in practice. Numerous factors have identified the need for the circular economy to emerge and mitigate the challenges over resource consumptions and environmental impact. A circular economy framework consists of various approaches to recover the materials from the end-of-life (EOL) stages. Over the decades, recycling and remanufacturing are the two primary practices that have been incorporated to recover the materials due to their economic and environmental benefits. Metals are the most consumable materials among the other materials. Metals are not consumable commodities like other natural resources. The statistic shows that every year million tons of metal waste are stagnating. Out of all the waste, although millions of tons of waste are currently being recycled and remanufactured, more can be done with an effective economic model. This thesis aims to close the existing gap in the conceptual economic models. Furthermore, it focuses on developing an economic model for recycling and remanufacturing practices using economic and performance parameters with various cost (direct & indirect) considerations is involved in each stage of the respective process. The academic literature was performed to identify the key variables and stages involved in the process. The developed model’s framework was presented to aid the stakeholders in decision-making regarding all the aspects of the product life cycle. This model can be applied to all the metals to explore their post-recovery alternatives in the closed-loop stream. This model adds significant value to sustainable product development.