Case study: Repair, reuse & refurbishment — a sector comparison with benchmark KPIs

Every year, Asia-Pacific generates over 24.9 million metric tons of electronic waste alone—yet less than 12% enters formal repair or refurbishment channels. This staggering gap between circular economy potential and operational reality reveals a complex landscape of implementation trade-offs, misaligned stakeholder incentives, and hidden bottlenecks that sustainability leaders must navigate. When the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that circular business models could unlock USD 4.5 trillion in economic value by 2030, the repair and reuse sector emerged as the most labor-intensive and logistically challenging segment to scale. This case study examines how leading organizations across electronics, textiles, automotive, and industrial equipment sectors in Asia-Pacific are benchmarking performance, identifying failure modes, and building the operational infrastructure necessary to make repair-first strategies commercially viable.

Why It Matters

The repair, reuse, and refurbishment sector sits at the intersection of resource efficiency, emissions reduction, and job creation—making it a critical lever for Asia-Pacific's sustainability transition. According to the International Resource Panel's 2024 Global Resources Outlook, extending product lifetimes through repair and refurbishment could reduce material consumption by 25-30% across consumer goods categories while generating 2-3x more local employment than recycling-based approaches.

The regional stakes are particularly high. Asia-Pacific accounts for 52% of global manufacturing output, meaning upstream design decisions made in factories from Shenzhen to Chennai determine downstream repairability for billions of consumers. Japan's 2024 Resource Circulation Strategy set a national target of 50% circular resource use by 2035, while South Korea's Extended Producer Responsibility framework now mandates that electronics manufacturers achieve minimum 15% refurbishment rates. Singapore's National Environment Agency reported that their Repair Kopitiam community initiative has facilitated over 28,000 successful repairs since 2020, diverting an estimated 42 metric tons from landfill.

Yet the economic fundamentals remain challenging. A 2025 analysis by the Asian Development Bank found that repair operations in the region achieve average operating margins of only 3-8%, compared to 15-25% for linear retail models. Labor costs constitute 60-75% of repair service expenses, and spare parts availability—particularly for electronics—dropped from 87% to 62% over the past decade as manufacturers shortened product lifecycles. These structural pressures explain why even well-funded circular economy initiatives struggle to achieve scale.

Key Concepts

Repair refers to the restoration of a product to working condition through fixing, replacing, or servicing defective components while maintaining the original product architecture. Unlike recycling, repair preserves the embedded energy and labor value of manufactured goods. The benchmark KPI is Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), with best-in-class electronics repair centers achieving under 48 hours from intake to return.

Reuse encompasses the secondary deployment of products or components without substantial modification. This includes resale markets, rental and leasing models, and redistribution programs. Asset utilization rate—measured as percentage of serviceable lifetime actually captured—serves as the primary KPI, with leading programs achieving 85-92% compared to the linear average of 35-50%.

Material Recovery describes the systematic extraction and reprocessing of valuable materials from end-of-life products when repair or reuse is no longer viable. Recovery rates vary dramatically by material stream: precious metals from electronics achieve 95%+ recovery in formal facilities, while rare earth elements remain below 1% globally. The economic break-even threshold typically requires processing volumes exceeding 10,000 units per month.

Traceability involves maintaining documentation of product provenance, repair history, and component sourcing throughout the lifecycle. Digital product passports—mandated by the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and increasingly adopted in APAC markets—enable warranty transfers, quality assurance, and compliance verification. Implementation costs range from USD 0.50-3.00 per unit depending on complexity.

Unit Economics captures the full cost and revenue structure of repair operations at the individual product level. This includes labor, parts, logistics, overhead allocation, warranty reserves, and remarketing margins. Achieving positive unit economics requires either high-value products (where repair costs remain <30% of replacement value) or sufficient volume to amortize fixed infrastructure costs across thousands of transactions.

What's Working and What Isn't

What's Working

OEM-integrated refurbishment programs are demonstrating that manufacturer commitment transforms unit economics. Samsung's Certified Re-Newed program in Australia and Southeast Asia achieved 94% customer satisfaction scores while recovering 40-60% of original device value through professional refurbishment. By controlling the supply chain from collection through resale, Samsung captures both the avoided disposal costs and the remarketing premium. Their benchmark: refurbished devices must achieve <1% return rates and come with 12-month warranties equivalent to new products.

Sector-specific repair cooperatives are scaling where individual operators cannot. Japan's nationwide network of Consumer Electronics Repair Association (CERA) members shares diagnostic tools, spare parts inventories, and technician training resources across 340 member workshops. This collective model reduced average parts procurement costs by 28% and decreased repair turnaround times from 14 days to 5 days. The cooperative model works because individual repair shops lack negotiating power with manufacturers, but collective purchasing changes the equation.

Industrial equipment remanufacturing has achieved commercial scale in heavy machinery sectors where replacement costs are prohibitive. Caterpillar's Batam, Indonesia facility remanufactures hydraulic components, transmissions, and engines to original specifications, returning them to service at 50-60% of new equipment cost while meeting identical performance warranties. The operation processes over 2.3 million components annually with 95% material recovery rates. Critical success factor: customers accept remanufactured components because failure costs in mining and construction far exceed any perceived quality discount.

Rental and leasing models are bypassing repair economics entirely by retaining manufacturer ownership. HP's Device-as-a-Service offering in Australia and India maintains hardware under manufacturer control throughout its useful life, enabling planned maintenance, component standardization, and systematic refurbishment between deployments. Customer adoption grew 67% year-over-year through 2024-2025, driven by IT departments seeking predictable costs and reduced electronic waste obligations.

What Isn't Working

Consumer electronics right-to-repair faces persistent manufacturer resistance despite regulatory pressure. Apple's Self Service Repair program, while available in Australia since 2023, has seen minimal uptake—less than 0.3% of eligible devices—due to pricing that makes official repair nearly equivalent to replacement, diagnostic software restrictions, and parts pairing requirements that prevent third-party component substitution. The hidden bottleneck: serialization systems that tie components to specific devices create artificial barriers even when spare parts technically exist.

Informal sector integration remains problematic across developing Asia-Pacific markets. In the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, the informal repair sector employs millions and processes the majority of consumer goods repairs, yet operates entirely outside formal quality and safety frameworks. Attempts to formalize these operators through certification programs have achieved <5% enrollment rates. Stakeholder incentive analysis reveals the core issue: formalization increases costs (licensing, insurance, facility upgrades) without proportional revenue improvements, creating negative ROI for most operators.

Textile repair and alteration services have failed to scale despite environmental urgency. Fashion brands launching repair programs—including Patagonia's Worn Wear and The North Face's Renewed—report repair request volumes that constitute less than 0.1% of units sold. Consumer research indicates the bottleneck is neither awareness nor willingness, but convenience: the friction of shipping garments, waiting 2-4 weeks, and paying repair costs that often exceed fast-fashion replacement prices suppresses demand. Location-based repair pop-ups show 3-5x higher engagement but cannot achieve the unit volumes necessary for profitability.

Cross-border refurbishment flows encounter trade and regulatory barriers that undermine economic viability. Shipping used electronics from high-cost markets (Japan, Singapore, Australia) to lower-cost refurbishment centers (Vietnam, Indonesia, India) triggers Basel Convention restrictions, import duties averaging 10-25%, and inconsistent e-waste classification. Several regional refurbishment hubs have abandoned cross-border sourcing entirely, instead focusing on domestic collection even where labor cost advantages would favor centralization.

Key Players

Established Leaders

Samsung Electronics operates dedicated refurbishment centers in Vietnam, India, and Australia processing over 3 million devices annually. Their Certified Re-Newed program has achieved 18% of the refurbished smartphone market in Southeast Asia.

Caterpillar Inc. runs Asia-Pacific's largest remanufacturing operation from Batam, Indonesia, processing components for the mining, construction, and energy sectors with documented cost savings of 40-50% versus new equipment.

HP Inc. pioneered Device-as-a-Service models in the region, with over 2.2 million devices under managed lifecycle contracts across Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore as of 2025.

Panasonic Corporation maintains Japan's most extensive authorized repair network with over 4,500 service points, achieving average repair completion rates of 89% for appliances under 8 years old.

Schneider Electric operates circular services hubs in Singapore and India that refurbish electrical infrastructure components, claiming 80% lower lifecycle carbon emissions compared to replacement-based maintenance strategies.

Emerging Startups

Back Market (France-based, APAC expansion) has become the largest refurbished electronics marketplace in Australia, achieving GMV of USD 180 million in 2024 with a quality certification framework that standardizes grading across third-party refurbishers.

Cashify (India) processes over 500,000 devices monthly through its network of diagnostics kiosks, collection points, and refurbishment facilities, targeting the massive domestic market for affordable secondhand smartphones.

Reebelo (Singapore) operates a B2C and B2B refurbished electronics platform across Southeast Asia, with proprietary grading technology that enabled 23% higher resale prices compared to unverified secondhand channels.

AnyMind Group (Japan) launched Brand Cycle in 2024, providing refurbishment and resale infrastructure as a white-label service for fashion and consumer goods brands expanding circular offerings in APAC.

Attero Recycling (India) combines material recovery with refurbishment operations, processing 2.1 million tons of e-waste annually while routing repairable devices to refurbishment streams before extracting materials from non-viable units.

Key Investors & Funders

Temasek Holdings (Singapore) has committed over USD 1.5 billion to circular economy ventures across its portfolio, including significant stakes in refurbishment infrastructure and reverse logistics companies.

Asian Development Bank launched the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility, which allocated USD 75 million to repair and reuse infrastructure projects in Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam through 2025.

Sequoia Capital India led funding rounds for Cashify and other recommerce platforms, betting that India's price-sensitive consumer base creates favorable unit economics for certified refurbished goods.

SoftBank Vision Fund invested USD 200 million in recommerce and circular economy platforms across APAC, though results have been mixed as several portfolio companies struggled to achieve profitability.

Japan Green Investment Corporation for Carbon Neutrality (JGIC) provides concessionary financing for circular economy infrastructure, including subsidized capital for repair facility development under Japan's Green Growth Strategy.

Examples

Example 1: LG Electronics India Refurbishment Initiative

LG Electronics established a dedicated refurbishment facility in Greater Noida in 2023, processing returned, damaged, and end-of-lease appliances including washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners. The operation processes 8,000-10,000 units monthly with standardized 47-point inspection protocols. Refurbished appliances sell at 40-55% of new retail prices through LG's secondary brand channel, capturing demand from price-sensitive segments while preventing grey market competition. Key metrics: 72% of processed units achieve resale-grade condition, average refurbishment cost is INR 2,400 (USD 29), and customer return rates of 2.3% compare favorably to new product returns of 1.8%. The facility employs 340 workers and has diverted an estimated 2,100 metric tons of appliances from informal disposal channels since launch.

Example 2: Australia Post Circular Services Network

Australia Post launched a national reverse logistics network for refurbishment in 2024, providing collection, consolidation, and shipping infrastructure that enables repair operators to achieve scale without building their own logistics capabilities. The network serves 127 refurbishment partners across electronics, small appliances, and fashion categories. Benchmark performance: average collection-to-delivery time of 5.2 days, 94% successful first-delivery rate, and processing costs 23% below equivalent point-to-point shipping. The platform also provides traceability infrastructure, with QR-coded tracking that maintains chain of custody documentation required for warranty transfers. Partner refurbishers report that access to the network enabled 2.1x volume growth by eliminating logistics as a scaling constraint.

Example 3: Toyota Thailand Used Parts Certified Program

Toyota Motor Thailand launched a certified used parts program in 2024 that extracts, inspects, and resells components from end-of-life vehicles through authorized dealer networks. The program processes approximately 6,500 vehicles annually at two dismantling facilities, recovering engines, transmissions, body panels, and electronic modules. Each part undergoes inspection protocols that result in a 68% acceptance rate for resale, with rejected components routed to material recovery. Certified used parts sell at 35-50% of new part prices with 6-month warranties. The program addresses a critical market gap: Thailand's vehicle fleet averages 12 years old, creating demand for affordable replacement parts that new part pricing cannot serve. Toyota reports that the program has increased authorized network service visits by 14% as cost-conscious vehicle owners return to dealer channels.

Action Checklist

• Conduct product-level repairability assessment across your portfolio using the European Repair Score methodology or equivalent framework to identify high-impact intervention points
• Map your current spare parts availability by product category and age, establishing baseline metrics for time-to-source and cost-to-source that enable repair economics modeling
• Evaluate total cost of ownership for repair-versus-replace decisions using lifecycle assessment methodology that captures environmental externalities alongside direct costs
• Develop or adopt digital product passport infrastructure that enables traceability, warranty transfers, and repair history documentation for high-value product categories
• Assess informal repair sector integration opportunities in your key markets, including certification pathways, training partnerships, and authorized parts access programs
• Model unit economics scenarios for repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing services at various volume levels to identify break-even thresholds and scaling requirements
• Establish benchmark KPIs including Mean Time To Repair, first-time fix rate, customer satisfaction, and return-after-repair metrics with quarterly reporting cadence
• Identify regulatory developments including Extended Producer Responsibility mandates, right-to-repair legislation, and circular procurement requirements that may affect compliance obligations
• Design stakeholder incentive alignment mechanisms that address manufacturer, retailer, service provider, and consumer motivation gaps currently limiting repair adoption
• Build pilot partnerships with established refurbishment operators before developing in-house capabilities, using pilot data to validate business case assumptions

FAQ

Q: What is the typical break-even volume for establishing a dedicated refurbishment operation in Asia-Pacific?

A: Break-even volumes vary significantly by product category and market, but general benchmarks suggest 3,000-5,000 units per month for consumer electronics, 500-1,000 units per month for major appliances, and 200-400 units per month for industrial equipment. These thresholds assume mixed product types requiring versatile technician skills; single-product-category operations can achieve lower break-even points through standardization. Critical variables include labor costs (ranging from USD 3-25 per hour across APAC markets), spare parts procurement costs, and remarketing channel margins. Operations below break-even volumes typically require cross-subsidization from related services such as warranty repair contracts, recycling fee revenue, or manufacturer subsidies for Extended Producer Responsibility compliance.

Q: How do leading organizations measure the quality of refurbished products to maintain brand reputation?

A: Best-practice quality assurance frameworks combine functional testing, cosmetic grading, and performance benchmarking against original specifications. Functional testing protocols typically include 30-50 checkpoints for electronics and 15-25 checkpoints for appliances, with documented pass/fail criteria for each. Cosmetic grading uses standardized categories (A/B/C or equivalent) with photographic documentation requirements. Performance benchmarking verifies that key specifications—battery capacity, processor speed, cooling efficiency—meet minimum thresholds, typically 80-85% of original for consumer electronics. Leading programs also implement post-sale quality monitoring, tracking return rates, warranty claims, and customer satisfaction scores by refurbishment batch to identify process drift before it impacts significant volumes.

Q: What are the primary barriers to scaling repair services for fast-moving consumer goods in price-sensitive markets?

A: Three structural barriers dominate. First, unit economics: when repair labor and parts costs exceed 40-50% of replacement product price, consumers rationally choose replacement, particularly for goods under USD 50. Second, convenience: repair requires consumer effort (transportation, waiting, communication) that replacement shopping increasingly eliminates through e-commerce and same-day delivery. Third, quality uncertainty: consumers cannot verify repair quality pre-purchase, creating risk asymmetry that favors known-quantity new products. Successful interventions address these barriers through on-site repair services that eliminate convenience gaps, transparent pricing that demonstrates value, and warranty mechanisms that shift quality risk from consumer to provider.

Q: How are Extended Producer Responsibility regulations affecting repair and refurbishment economics in the region?

A: EPR schemes are creating both compliance costs and market opportunities. In South Korea, producers now face mandatory refurbishment targets that create financial incentives for establishing or contracting refurbishment capacity. Japan's revised Act on Promotion of Resource Circulation requires manufacturers to ensure repair service availability for minimum periods. These regulations effectively internalize disposal costs that previously externalized to municipalities, changing the comparative economics of repair versus disposal. However, implementation varies significantly: well-designed EPR schemes with modulated fees (lower fees for more repairable products) create meaningful incentives, while flat-fee schemes without repairability differentiation have minimal impact on manufacturer behavior. Organizations should monitor regulatory developments and participate in consultations to advocate for designs that reward circular practices.

Q: What role does product design play in enabling or preventing downstream repair and refurbishment?

A: Design determines 80% of downstream repairability before the product ever reaches market. Key design factors include: modular architecture that enables component-level repair rather than full-unit replacement; standardized fasteners that can be disassembled with common tools; accessible component placement that minimizes labor time; diagnostic systems that enable fault identification; and documentation availability including service manuals and parts catalogs. Progressive manufacturers are adopting Design for Repair frameworks that incorporate these principles alongside traditional design-for-manufacturing and design-for-cost objectives. The trade-off is typically 3-8% higher manufacturing costs for significantly improved repair economics—a favorable exchange when manufacturers participate in downstream refurbishment value capture but a cost penalty when products are designed for linear sale-and-forget models.

Sources

• International Resource Panel. (2024). Global Resources Outlook 2024: Bend the Trend. United Nations Environment Programme.

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2024). The Circular Economy Opportunity for Asia-Pacific. Cowes, UK: Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

• Asian Development Bank. (2025). Circular Economy in Asia: Scaling Repair and Reuse Business Models. Manila: ADB Publications.

• Japan Ministry of Environment. (2024). Resource Circulation Strategy for 2035: Implementation Roadmap. Tokyo: Government of Japan.

• Samsung Electronics. (2025). Certified Re-Newed Program Impact Report 2024. Seoul: Samsung Corporate Sustainability.

• United Nations University & International Telecommunication Union. (2024). Global E-waste Monitor 2024. Geneva: ITU Publications.

• National Environment Agency Singapore. (2024). Annual Report on Waste Management and Resource Recovery. Singapore: NEA.