University links with China to prolong the life of goods

The event, the first of its kind aimed at fostering cooperation in remanufacturing between the UK and China, was attended by representatives of the UK's innovation agency 'Innovate UK', the British Embassy in China, the Welsh Government and China’s Ministry for Information and Industry Technology.

It was co-organised by Dr Yan Wang, Senior Lecturer in the University of Brighton's School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, who works in the field of sustainable manufacturing and currently is a Visiting Scholar at China’s National Key Laboratory for Remanufacturing.

She said: "Remanufacturing adds value to waste streams by returning items to working order rather than reducing them to their raw material value only.

Dr Wang and David Fitzsimons, Director of the European Remanufacturing Council

Dr Peter Fearon (left) with keynote speaker Simon Masters Head of High Value manufacturing at Innovate UK

"Remanufacturing, which is an important element of the circular economy, is growing rapidly globally. The UK is a EU leader in remanufacturing and China is potentially the largest market for remanufactured products and services and play very important roles in supply chain in global remanufacturing.

"Collaborating with China at all levels presents great potential for the UK manufacturing/remanufacturing community."

Dr Wang was accompanied by Dr Peter Fearon, the Knowledge Exchange Manager for the university’s Responsible Futures which works towards a more just and environmentally sustainable society through the development of research and enterprise collaborations with local, national and international industry partners.

Dr Fearon said: "Through remanufacturing, the useful life of expensive, resource hungry products can be extended and often doubled."

The 'China-UK Green Manufacturing and Remanufacturing Summit', held in Hejian near Beijing and reported on China’s nation TV station, was organised by the Jing-Jin-Ji Institute of remanufacturing Industry Technology in partnership with the university.