Recyclability evaluation method (REM) and its applications

Abstract

Realization of successful recycling of end-of-life products greatly depends on, as well as environmentally conscious, whether the recycling process can be made economically feasible. We regard the ease of product recycling as indispensable in order to realize a feasible recycling process. In order to make products easier to recycle, it is necessary to take the ease of disassembly processing and final treatment into consideration at the design stage. Therefore, an advanced evaluation method that can evaluate a product's ease of recycling, with minimal prototyping and testing of the product is required at the early design stage. In answer to this, we have developed the Recyclability Evaluation Method (REM). In this paper, the theory of the method, procedure and the structure of the system are presented and a number of application examples are given.