This page lists currently available recycling and disposal routes for typical waste streams from the composites industry. While investigating disposal routes, you may also want to consider how your organisation can:

  • Reduce waste
  • Find reuse or remanufacturing applications for end-of-life (EOL) parts
  • Use recycled material or even recycle in-house
  • Be aware of how materials are recycled and design with a circular economy in mind

An overview of composite recycling processes is at End of Life and Recycling. More information including guidance on using recycled fibres, more detailed descriptions of composite recycling routes, and a list of relevant EWC codes can be found in the Sustainability Good Practice Guide.

If you have suggestions to add or content needs to be edited, please contact us. Please note that company links on this page are provided for information and Composites UK cannot formally endorse these. Please carry out your own checks to see if the service provided is suitable for your business. 

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Recycling In-house or as a Service

There may be ways you can recycle some of your GFRP waste in-house, particularly if you use a spray-up, casting or compression moulding process. Grinding to fine filler is a proven route but is difficult to achieve economically. Grinding so that some fibre length is retained creates a reinforcing filler and has been shown to be more valuable.

Ecowolf (Florida, USA) produces recycling equipment for grinding cured composite and pre-preg scrap and for incorporating regrind in spray up processes. The harvested structural fibres can also be used in other processes such as compression moulding, BMC, SMC, hand-layup, RTM.

Gees Recycling (Italy) can take your FRP waste, grind it and convert it into board products as a service.

Carbon fibre offcuts: Some carbon fibre pre-preg manufacturers have systems available to customers for recycling pre-preg offcuts in-house – ask your supplier. Several manufacturers have used dry fibre offcuts in mould tooling.

Glass Fibre Composite Waste

At present there is no commercial route which accepts GFRP scrap for recycling into new products, though several approaches are in development. Therefore the currently available commercial options for disposing of GFRP waste material are as follows:

Energy recovery – In some cases GRP waste can be sent to energy from waste plants. Check with your waste management contractor, or Agecko can arrange this. The glass and filler will become ash – you may want to ask whether the incinerator bottom ash (IBA) will be recycled (as aggregate or in building products) or landfilled. Incineration, even where the ash is used as backfill/ aggregate, does not meet the definition of recycling in the EU Waste Framework Directive (or Waste (England and Wales) Regulations).

Landfill – Landfill is generally seen as the last resort, allowing for no material circularity or reuse, though it does have the advantage that the fossil carbon is effectively sequestered rather than burnt.

Mechanical grinding and cement kiln recycling are not currently available as a commercial disposal route in the UK, though development work continues.

Carbon Fibre Composite Waste

Gen 2 Carbon (previously ELG Carbon Fibre) was the world’s first commercial carbon fibre recycler. They can take dry fibre, pre-preg and cured laminate waste. The waste is converted into the G-Tex range of products including chopped and milled fibre, oversized tow and non-woven mats.

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Incineration is not recommended to dispose of waste containing carbon fibre. This is because there is a possibility of defibrillation / oxidation of carbon fibres to create small diameter fibres which could be carcinogenic, though the risk is as yet unclear. Also carbon fibres in the airstream can cause shorting in electric flue gas filters in incinerators. Recycling is clearly preferable.

Dry Fibres

Gen 2 Carbon takes dry carbon fibre waste for recycling, as noted above.

Gen2Plank takes dry glass fibre fabric nesting waste/end of rolls in the form of UD’s, NCFs, woven fabrics, combi mats, and glass rovings. They do not currently recycle glass veils, CFM, CSM, or Rovicore. The material needs to be packed in bulk bags and sent to their facility in Wolverhampton.

Aptec recycles aramid fibres. They can also process other fibres as a service, e.g. chopping, carding, blending, spinning, which may be used in needlefelt, silencer fillings, friction materials reinforcement, etc. See Fibre Recycling and Processing.

If recycling routes are not available, large volumes of glass fibre waste with no organic resin can in some cases be disposed of as aggregate, with a much lower landfill tax rate.

Waste Management Consultancy

Agecko is a waste management consultant which works with several Composites UK members. Agecko will undertake a waste audit to look at the waste your business produces and determine the maximum recyclable solution. They also provide the equipment and containers such as balers and shredders which facilitate this. Its solutions include energy recovery/cement kiln recycling for GRP waste. Case studies can be found here and here. Composites Contact: Natan Elfassy

Large Structures

Marine and Boat Recycling is the UK’s first zero to landfill facility for the recycling and complete disposal of end-of-life boats. They arrange recovery, downsizing, dismantling and recycling of the parts, and any non-recyclable parts, mainly the fibreglass shell, are shredded and sent for energy recovery. They are actively undergoing trials to find ways to recycle the fibreglass.          

ReBlade decommissions wind turbines with a focus on maintaining value through reuse and remanufacture of the composite parts. They deliver a unique, sustainably focussed service, recognising the increasingly urgent need to develop scalable non-landfill destinations. ReBlade repurposes the glass fibre composite blades and nacelles for reuse in public realm infrastructure products. Case studies can be found here.

Hazardous Waste

Cured composite waste is not considered hazardous, but wastes containing uncured resin, including uncured prepreg, are typically deemed hazardous. Check with your waste management contractor, or Agecko can arrange for appropriate treatment.

Chemicals and Solvent Recycling

Magnum Venus Products Europe supplies recycling systems in various sizes for recovering acetone and all exhausted solvents and thinners through distillation.

GRP Solutions supplies EasyClean acetone replacement products which work with polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy and phenolic resins. It is approved for all hand lay applications and by a number of machine manufacturers. It is also fully recyclable

Drums and IBCs

Schütz supplies many of the IBCs used in the composites industry in the UK. They collect and recondition the used IBCs through the Schütz Ticket Service. 

Packaging Reuse & Disposal Services, CleanEcoGroup and WasteCare provide solutions for hazardous waste, contaminated packaging and other packaging materials. They clean and recondition contaminated IBCs and drums and can recycle those not suitable for reconditioning. Packaging Reuse and WasteCare also sell reconditioned IBCs and drums.

Consumables

Considering ways to reduce or eliminate consumables, or use reconditioned products, can result in both economic and environmental benefits.

Alan Harper Composites supplies fiRST®- Fibre Infusion Reusable Silicone Technology for open and closed moulding composites manufacturers. The system eliminates the need for single-use vacuum bagging materials and produces inherently leaner composite parts, often saving resin usage by 10-20%. This improves efficiency and reduces costs in addition to significantly cutting manufacturing waste. Case studies can be found here and here.

Techlan recycles rolls of used silicone release paper from prepreg manufacture. Its innovative cleaning process enables the release paper to be cleaned and reused into various markets, including to several Composites UK members. If you use silicone release paper in your processes, this recycled release paper will be a cost effective alternative and provide improved environmental benefits over a virgin paper.

Techlan also purchases prime grade materials that may be surplus to requirements, or quality rejected. Products of particular interest for Techlan to purchase are siliconised films, siliconised papers and uncoated polyester films. Other items would also be considered.