The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Other Considerations

Designers focuses on the three particular aspects of potential cost saving and reducing
environmental impact: reducing the use of materials through value analysis; refurbishing
and then reselling returned goods that have additional useful life, which is referred to as
remanufacturing and reclaiming parts of unusable products for recycling.

The Reduce Value Analysis is an examination of the function of parts and materials in
an effort to lower the cost and improve the performance of a product. Example
questions that can be part of analysis include: Is the function necessary? Could a
cheaper part of analysis be used?.

Reuse: Remanufacturing refers to developing used products by replacing worn-out or

defective components and reselling the products. Products that have remanufactured
components are computers, automobiles, telephone and camers, etc. The important
reasons for doing this is a remanufactured product can be sold for about 50 percent of
the cost of a new product. The process mostly needs semiskilled and unskilled
workers. And the global market, European lawmakers are increasingly requiring
manufacturers to take back used products which would mean having a fewer products
end up in landfills and less depletion of natural resources like raw materials and fuel.

Recycling is an essential part of consideration for designers. This means recovering

materials in order to be used in the future. This applies not only to manufactured parts
but also to materials used during the production like lubricants and solvents.
Companies recycle for cost savings, environment concerns and environmental
regulations. The pressure to recycle has given rise because of the Design for recycling
(DFR) which design that facilitates the recovery of materials and components in used
products to reuse.

Most, but not all, products and services go through different stages of their useful life
which is called their life cycle. Different phases means different strategies that will be
done. When a product is introduced, a lot of people gets curious about it. Companies
must think first the trade offs before getting a leap on the competition. You should first
know if the product you are selling will be the right time for it. Next is the growth phase
wherein it’s essential to get accurate projections of the growth rate and to ensure that
capacity increases and so is the increase of demand. The following phase is the
maturity, this is the time when costs are low, and productivity is high. It means that you
should be able to think of a development for your product in order to keep up with your
competition. In the decline phase, a decision must be made if you will still continue your
product, you will make a new product, or abandon the market (not make any products at
all). The life span of some products are just fast, while some takes a long time in the
market. It’s very different for everything because people make different products.