Analysis of Potential Economic and Environmental Effects through Remanufacturing of Construction Equipment in Korea

Abstract

Remanufacturing is one of the business models of the circular economy frame to cope with environmental problems such as depletion of resources and climate change, which is becoming hot issues all over the world, and the demand for revitalization of the remanufacturing industries are increasing. Among the various remanufacturing fields, the construction equipment has a large unit weight per product and it is mainly composed of cast iron, so it can be expected that the energy and resource saving effect through remanufacturing will be high. Leading construction equipment companies have been aware of the importance of remanufacturing from 20 ~ 30 years ago and are leading the construction equipment remanufacturing industry trend by fostering the remanufacturing business. The construction equipment remanufacturing industry in Korea is an early stage in which several interested companies participate. Key challenges include the need for objective evidence of the effectiveness of remanufacturing, securing skilled technical personnel, securing R & D infrastructure, and providing stable cores for remanufacturing. In this study, we analyzed the potential economic and environmental effects of remanufacturing in Korea’s construction equipment remanufacturing market. As a result of the analysis, when the registration of the construction equipment was invalidated, the economic effect was compared between the case where the construction equipment was dismantled and the case where the remanufacturing was carried out. In addition, environmental effects were analyzed by applying LCA method to reduce environmental impacts in terms of climate change, air pollutant emissions, and resource consumption.