• H2020
• Industrial Leadership
• Advanced Materials, Manufacturing & Processing

The newly launched European Remanufacturing Council has announced its plans to represent companies which produce €30bn of remanufactured products and employ 190,000 people across Europe.

Its programme, aimed at global institutions such as the UN, the OECD and the World Bank, aims to increase the proportion of manufactured output that achieves an extended life through remanufacturing to 5%. The current rate is 2%.

Keynote speaker Walter Stahel, who first highlighted the resource savings that could be achieved by extending product life, wished the council every success. Dr Nancy Bocken from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, presented results from the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN) project and acknowledged the funding support from the EU Horizon 2020 programme. The ERN network enabled researchers from across Europe to deliver a comprehensive market study designed to be directly comparable with one carried out in the USA.

David Parker from Oakdene Hollins set out the recommendations from the ERN project partners – aimed at enabling faster growth in remanufacturing sales.

The new council is to liaise with the research community in the ERN whilst welcoming member companies from the automotive, transport, imaging and technology sectors.

Council director David Fitzsimons said: “Our ambition is to make remanufacturing a normal part of a product’s lifecycle, but before that can happen we need to inspire a new, young generation.”