The term ‘green’ is commonly used to denote an environmental friendly activity. The objective of green manufacturing is to design and produce products in an environmentally benign manner. The characteristics of an environmentally benign product ranges from the use of recyclable materials or recycled materials wherever possible, the use of fixtures and/or components that can be easily taken apart, or the design of product structure to allow ease of disassembly (Graedel and Allenby, 1995).

See  Environmental issues and operations management;  Environmental issues: reuse and recycling.