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A study conducted by Albany, NY-based Davies Office Refurbishing Inc. shows how office panel remanufacturing (the process by which worn-out products are restored to extend their useful life) not only saves on disposal costs and landfill space, but also results in significant energy savings. According to the study, remanufacturing uses over 100 fewer steps to produce an office panel than the original manufacturing process. Other key findings:
- Office panels that are remanufactured aren’t disposed of in landfills or subjected to the metal recycling process, which while preferable to landfilling - does have environmental impacts.
- Be reusing materials in an office panel (steel, fiber glass, cardboard, etc.), the environmental impacts of extracting virgin material needed to produce these materials for a new panel are avoided.
- By avoiding the consumption of energy to manufacture a new panel, the emissions associated with energy generation are avoided, as are the impacts from obtaining, processing, and transporting fuels to make that energy.
