(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- Oh, it’s new! I want it now. Ho-hum... what’s next? Consumers’ ever-growing appetite to acquire new products, and their short courtship with them, has kept manufacturers busy not only expending resources at an alarming rate, but also depleting these resources and giving rise to waste and pollution at a correspondingly increasing and disturbing rate.

Traditional manufacturing methods that use mainly virgin materials to produce new products and dispose of the used products at the end of their lives are quickly becoming unsustainable. In addition, regulations that require manufacturers to take back products and dispose of them responsibly have forced manufacturers to establish dedicated facilities for product-recovery systems that minimize waste and maximize remanufacturing and recycling.

 …