Oil, gas, coal, metal ores and many other raw materials that underpin our modern way of life are available to us on planet earth in limited amounts. Once we have consumed them in the production of energy and the manufacture of industrial and consumer goods, there is currently no other source readily available to us for exploitation. For many of these materials the pace of economic expansion, industrial development, population growth and globalisation is leading to unsustainable consumption rates and the very real possibility of shortages and ultimately exhaustion of supply. It is therefore important that developed and developing nations adopt sustainable approaches and create resource efficient economies in parallel with the search for substitute materials.
Mechanical engineers work in many areas that are at the centre of resource consumption, ranging from energy generation and distribution, through transport and built infrastructure, to the manufacture of industrial and consumer goods. Our profession is therefore in a strong position to influence the use of the world's resources, through the designs we create, the materials we specify, the manufacturing processes we use, the efficiency of operation that we can achieve and the end of life options we provide for products and machines.
The issue of fuel security is addressed in the energy and transport themes, the environment theme is concerned with the raw materials used in mechanical engineering systems. In particular, in striving to create resource efficient economies there are two areas of particular relevance to our profession: considering waste as a resource; and design for remanufacture and reuse.
The Institution subscribes to the waste hierarchy and believes that waste minimisation, through both effective design and changes in society's consumerist attitudes, together with a paradigm shift in thinking to a waste as a resource culture, is the fundamental route to a resource efficient economy. At the core of such an approach is the development of methodologies for the selection of the appropriate route for a given resource (waste) stream, rather than an overemphasis on one particular route, such as, for example, recycling. Click here for some of our thoughts and recommendations in this area.
A significant component in the development of a resource efficient economy is that of product reuse and remanufacture. Indeed, the use of such strategies can often offer much higher resource productivities than materials recycling and may bring benefits such as reduction of carbon intensity at point of manufacture and reduction in the supply chain of raw materials by inherently closed-loop remanufacture. However, the Institution recognises that such a strategy is not always the most appropriate end-of-life option, but typically it can be applied to complex manufactured industrial products that possess significant embedded material, energy and labour resources whose values can be recovered through suitable techniques. Key elements for success in this area are the need to design for remanufacture and reuse, the development of standards and the ability to issue warranties on a par with virgin products. The Institution is exploring these topics in a mechanical engineering context with the Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse. Click here for more information on the Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse.
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