Defining Remanufacturing: A Key Business Strategy Advancing Industrial Circularity

Summary, in English

Remanufacturing is a key strategy in the circular economy, enabling substantial product value retention. However, inconsistent definitions across standards and legislation hinder global trade, core recovery and market acceptance. This study examines how remanufacturing is defined in laws and standards, and how these definitions impact industry practices. Through a literature review of key existing definitions and semistructured interviews with 20 remanufacturing professionals, we identified definitional preferences, problematic terminology and misalignments. Findings of this study reveal strong support for definitions that set expectations for quality and performance, clearly distinguish remanufacturing from refurbishment and avoid restrictive language. Based on these insights, we propose a refined definition of remanufacturing and present a visualisation of how products are made in a circular manufacturing context. This study provides greater clarity on industrial remanufacturing practices and preferences, thus supporting the continued development of circular operations, and reinforcing remanufacturing's role as a vital circular activity for the manufacturing industry.

• Author: Erik Sundin; Jennifer D. Russell; Carl Dalhammar
• Department/s: Environmental Law; CIRCLE; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo); Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC); The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
• Publishing year: 2026-05-03
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Business Strategy and the Environment
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bse.70906
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Topic: Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
• Status: Epub
• Research group: Environmental Law
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1099-0836