Toward Economic Value Enhancement of Recycled Bucket Teeth Products: Environmentally Centric Product Design Method

This study was conducted at one of the largest coal mining industries in Indonesia, utilizing 0.93% or 15.1 tons of carbon steel waste from ground engaging tools (GET) out of a total 1,620.5 tons annually. Previously, this carbon steel waste was merely stockpiled in a yard. The engineering effort focused on designing environmentally friendly products through recycling and redesign methods, emphasizing mechanical properties such as yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, elongation, and abrasiveness to optimize the performance of bucket teeth intended for sedimentary rocks containing 65%-83% quartz. Since 2020, the recycling and redesign approach has successfully converted carbon steel waste into 281 bucket teeth, each with a lifespan of 531 hours. This method promotes environmental conservation while offering a strategic step toward natural resource preservation. Based on the findings, the development and mass production of these bucket teeth present economic added value for local metal casting SMEs by integrating them into the supply chain process.