Super Recycling

Best Idea

Manufacturers have long wrung efficiencies out of people. Why not try it on raw materials? Dubbed remanufacturing, the idea is simple: Take back used goods, build them back up to “like new” condition, and resell them. Carpet maker Interface Inc. uses reclaimed materials in its carpet tiles’ vinyl backing. The concept has been around forever, but in 2006, persistently high material and energy costs allowed companies such as Caterpillar and Xerox to save a bundle. Cat’s diesel engine remanufacturing operation, one of the Peoria company’s fastest-growing units, nearly doubled its size in June with the $1 billion acquisition of train-car remanufacturer Progress Rail. And in red-hot sectors like oil-field services, the only way a company like Hanover Compressor, whose products help squeeze natural gas out of deposits, could quickly meet surging demand was to remanufacture its fleet of skids. Building new ones from scratch would have taken too long. Another timely by-product: Super recycling is super-friendly to the environment.

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