Overview of remanufacturing industry in China: Government policies, enterprise, and public awareness

A growing number of the end-of-life products and resulting waste has made environmental protection and resource conservation an arduous task for countries across the world. The Chinese government, acknowledging this problem, enacted a series of laws and regulations concerning remanufacturing to help support the development of such industries. In this paper, we outline current situation and progress made in remanufacturing industry in China. Our investigation covers three perspectives, namely: the government policies, enterprises, and public awareness. Policies and the regulations related to remanufacturing are elaborated and evaluated in a chronological order. Advanced remanufacturing technologies as well as leading remanufacturing enterprises and national industrial parks are discussed. Public awareness on remanufacturing and citizens' participation in the environmental activities, both of which are beneficial to policy formulation and implementation, are surveyed and analyzed. Our analysis shows that industrial scale and annual production value of remanufacturing enterprises is improving with the new policies as well as capital and technical support from the government. Potential problems such as technical barriers, inefficiency, and lack of unified standards of remanufactured products still exist. Our survey of public awareness on remanufacturing shows that most respondents are unfamiliar with remanufactured products, but expressed their willingness and active support to promote the industry. Targeted recommendations and solutions are proposed for the government, enterprises, and public to promote and advance remanufacturing industry. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.