Strathclyde University, Scotland.
A Strathclyde University-based institution is helping nine remanufacturing projects play their part in ‘a new industrial revolution.’
The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture, an institution aiming to create a circular economy in Scotland with the backing of the Scottish Government at Holyrood, has announced funding for nine new projects seeking to create a waste-free nation.
A BBC report of the funding decision features various remanufacturers, from multiple industries, including turbocharger remanufacturer Alan Mitchell, managing director of Glasgow’s The Turbo Guy, and John Mackie, of Mackie Transmission Services, also of Glasgow, which remanufactures torque converters.
Mackie told the BBC of the frustrations posed to the remanufacturing industry by so-called “cowboys”.
“The current legislation does not differentiate between a remanufactured product and a second-hand product,” he explained. “There are lots of cowboys out there that will advertise something as remanufactured, when it’s not. It probably needs some additional legislation from the government to correctly describe a remanufactured product, which should be as good as new, if not better.”
The article also gives the example of cartridge remanufacturing and refilling, and suggests that many who have sought to avoid paying “the sometimes eye-watering price” of an OEM cartridge “have perhaps unknowingly availed [themselves] of the remanufacturing sector.”
The sector is worth £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion/€1.2 billion) to the Scottish economy annually, and its thriving diversity is evidenced by the projects to receive this latest allocation of funding. It includes projects from across the country to breathe new life into items as varied as computers, mobile phones, aerial drones, wind farms, and diesel exhaust filters.
The BBC compares the Scottish Institute for Remanufacture, which is based at Strathclyde University, to “a dating agency between businesses and academics at universities across Scotland.”
Professor Jonathan Corney, a professor of Design and Manufacture at the university, and a member of the Institute’s Board, believes the remanufacturing boom could trigger a new industrial revolution – as long as the trend continues, and customer prejudice dissipates.
“Everybody wins,” Corney explained. “You as a consumer will get a product that’s cheaper. The environment wins because the energy costs and the raw material costs are much lower. And society wins because the remanufacturing jobs are highly skilled, hard to move, and should sustain long after other jobs have been automated.”
