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Design Rules and Guidelines 141

C. Design for Revalorization

Revalorization describes a variety of methods for recovering value
from a product at the end of its useful life. It applies mainly to dura-
ble products that are placed into service for some period of time and
then retired or discarded. However, in the case of consumable prod-
ucts such as foods, revalorization may be applicable to auxiliary
materials, such as packaging and utensils that are traditionally treated
as wastes. The fundamental purpose of revalorization is to prevent a
product or material from becoming a waste by diverting it to an eco-
nomically viable use.

C.1 Design for Product Recovery
From a product stewardship perspective, every product should be
considered an asset, even after its ownership has been transferred to
customers, and even after customers have terminated their use of the
product. One way to improve the life-cycle utilization of products is
to extend their longevity (see Section A.1, Design for Energy and
Material Conservation), but this is often not feasible or economical.
However, the residual value of discarded products can often be
recovered for the benefit of the manufacturer and other supply chain
partners.
In cases where product technology becomes obsolete rapidly,
entire systems can be refurbished and resold. For example, there are

FIGURE 8.6 Design for revalorization.