In the process of refurbishing, a product is 'revived' and used for its primary use, whereas repurposing refers to an alternative use. Refurbished products are inferior to the primary products; refurbishing extends the life of a product, but old or obsolete parts are often discarded and, eventually, the whole product will require discarding.

For example, the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles can be refurbished or repurposed as secondary stationary storage applications when they suffer degradation of their battery capacity. Refurbishing batteries offers a cost-effective alternative to manufacturing newer batteries as shown in Figure 1.