ABSTRACT
This chapter will address the economic pillar of sustainability. It will do so by demonstrating how designers can estimate costs of designing products for various end-of-life options. Specifically, three particular end-of-life options are addressed: Recycling, remanufacturing and refurbishing. It is important for designers to be able to weigh the costs of their design recommendations early during the product design phase. If a design recommendation offers the best possible option for environmental conservation, but is not economically feasible, that option will most likely not be incorporated. It will be most likely traded for another option that is economically more feasible but perhaps contributes a little less to environmental conservation. This chapter presents clear mathematical formulas to enable computation of related costs. Better decisions can be made by designers the earlier these costs are estimated.
