A brief look back through the pages of ReMaTecNews over the last 12 months shows that remanufacturing has a lot to cheer about.
"After all, any year which has Rodney Copperbottom in it can’t be all bad. Well, compared to 2016 anyway"
The year 2017 was quite tranquil – but then virtually any year would have been quiet after 2016, in which UK voters made Brexit a reality and US voters catapulted Donald Trump into the White House. For the remanufacturing industry, there was still plenty of interest. The highlight was ReMaTec 2017 in Amsterdam, which brought together remanufacturers from all over the world. The big remanufacturing issues – including the rise of China, electric vehicles and additive manufacturing - were touched on in presentations and on stands. Elsewhere, Volvo announced it is going electric (almost, at any rate), while Apple pledged to move to a closed-loop supply chain. The computer giant was at the centre of another big story too – after a Dutch court decided that a remanufacturing iPad could not be used to settle a customer dispute. While this showed that public acceptance of remanufacturing still has a way to go, there are grounds for optimism. Ellen MacArthur, former record-breaking yachtswoman and perhaps the best-known proponent of the circular economy, emphasised the importance of remanufacturing in her interview with ReMaTecNews, saying: “Remanufacturing is at the core of the circular economy.” It is a message that she, and others, are making persuasively to the people who can actually make a difference – the world’s politicians and policy makers. This year’s creation of the European Remanufacturing Council (CER) is another positive step in that direction: its aim is to make remanufacturing a normal part of a product’s lifecycle – something which everyone in the industry can get behind. The CER’s unofficial mascot, Rodney Copperbottom, star of the animated movie Robots, may also help persuade young consumers that remanufacturing makes sense. Continuing this theme, for the first time ever, the Remanufacturer of the Year award was given jointly to two people. Peter Bartel and Salvador Munoz Zarate shared the accolade for their work in promoting remanufacturing with the European Commission and the United Nations. Times are changing. Roll on 2018…
