If you’re from an industrial company and wondering how to benefit from the increased pressures towards sustainability and waste management, worry not, for this article will change your perspective. The best way for any industrial company to adopt sustainability is through the Rs—reuse, repair, refurbish, and recycle.
For the benefit of the world and all living beings, sustaining the Earth is a major priority. However, for companies and industries, traditional recycling proves relatively too high a cost. However, the reaction to that shouldn’t be to reject or postpone the idea entirely, but to try and change it and adopt a version that is just as economical and beneficial as it is sustainable.
The Concept of Circular Economy
Most of the manufacturing functions and makes use of resources in a linear fashion. Raw materials are obtained, parts of a product are manufactured from these raw materials, the parts are then consolidated, and then the product is finally sent to retailers and wholesalers to be sold. Once with the customer, the product ownership is no longer with the manufacturer, and when it is of no use, the product is added to the multitude of garbage and waste that is dumped daily.
This is an issue in a variety of ways. Still, one of significance to industrial companies is that their product, which went through multiple processes and took a lot of manpower and resources, becomes a piece in the pile of junk that exists in every city.
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The potential here is that if there is instead a circular economy, one that uses a product—and in turn, raw materials—multiple times before it is sent inevitably to the pile. This is not only beneficial for the environment but also saves a lot of money for the manufacturers.
The 4 Rs
There are four ways, ascending in complexity, through which used commodities can be altered, remade, redesigned, or reduced to make a new or different model.
Reuse
This is the least complex, requires the least effort, and is quite profitable. From used complex products, which require many parts to form, salvageable parts can be reused in the manufacturing process. It would require simply the effort of cleaning or modifying.
An example could be machines—automobiles, refrigerators, washing machines. Consumers can be asked to return used machines in exchange for discounts or payments, and the various salvageable parts can be reused in the manufacturing process.
Repair
By giving the customers this cheap alternative to repairing, manufacturers can reduce the cost of production while also generating revenue. This is a win-win situation for both the customers and the manufacturers.
Already, there are many companies who’ve begun walking the course to circular economy through reuse and repair. Thrift shops, warranties, and repair services all fall under these.
Refurbish
Refurbishing is upgrading, modifying, and altering the used products to turn them anew or, say, give them another life. This, too, is a process that is in use but not as much as it should. Refurbishing is not necessarily to make the whole product new; it can also entail turning a product into another one based on how the parts can be remade.
Recycle
Recycling involves sorting the waste or used materials, and after multiple treatments, reducing them back to raw material. This is the final and the most complex process. In the cycle of birth and rebirth analogy, this is where the product must die to be reborn again. The earlier three processes were the medications and surgeries the products underwent to live longer.
All four are alternatives that reduce costs tremendously. There is sure to be a long investment to be made to ensure the processes can be smoothly undertaken, but it will mostly be beneficial in the long run.
Liquidation of Surplus Inventory
As we speak of industrial manufacturing and ways to turn economically sustainable, let us see how liquidation of surplus inventory is a big step towards sustainable use of resources. It is a common thing for many companies to ‘get rid’ of their surplus inventory by dumping them in junkyards.
A better way to go about it is to employ consignment services and get them sold. This benefits not only the manufacturers economically but also those who buy them. Second-hand or untouched but useless-to-the-seller inventory is quite cost-effective and not necessarily faulty or old.
You could either do the selling yourself, make a deal with trade partners or you could employ a third-party to get the job done for you. Either way, you’ll have to lose some to gain some. If you do it yourself, the resources required to carry out the sale might just equal the commission you’d be required to pay for a consignment service. The choice entirely depends on whether you are willing to spend and possess the resources required to manage the sales.
Liquidation is the way to go when it comes to surplus inventory. Mainly because that is the sustainable choice but also because it will benefit you and the buyer.
Conclusion
Industrial progress need not always be the cause for environmental issues, it can also be a means of sustainable development. We often look at the environmental issue with one eye, forgetting that simply blaming or accepting the fact of global warming is not the way to go about it. We can make certain changes and entirely alter the course of waste management.
The 4 Rs are the path to sustainable development: reuse, repair, refurbish, and recycle. These can not only reduce the exhaustion of raw materials but also benefit manufacturers economically. By giving a product as long a life as possible, we reduce the requirement of producing more.
At times when the inventory used for manufacturing goods is no longer needed for one reason or the other, rather than dumping it, the companies can opt to instead liquidate them either by selling them off on their own or employing a third-party consignment service.