The GDP-waste model proposed by the European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA) provides critical support for advancing circular economy practices. Faced with the challenges of global climate change, the European Union (EU) has set an ambitious target through the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) to reduce emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. Developing a circular economy system to reduce energy consumption, raw material usage, and landfill waste has become a key pathway to achieving this goal.
Leveraging GDP data from European countries, the NZIA has constructed a predictive model indicating that the total volume of thermoset composite waste in Europe is expected to reach approximately 914,000 metric tons by 2025. However, real-world conditions reveal that the current volume of recyclable composite waste is significantly lower than this projection due to multiple constraints:
Inadequate Collection and Sorting Systems: Specialized collection and sorting systems for composite recycling remain underdeveloped, resulting in a substantial portion of end-of-life products not being effectively collected.
Export for Reuse: Some composite components, such as wind turbine blades and automotive and aerospace parts, are exported outside Europe for reuse.
Embedded Infrastructure: Numerous composite components are integrated into infrastructure that is difficult to recycle, such as underground pipelines and storage tanks.
EuCIA conducted a detailed analysis of various market segments, taking into account existing recycling pathways and the accessibility of composite recycling. The study indicates that by 2025, the actual volume of thermoset composite waste available for recycling will be approximately 228,000 metric tons, accounting for only 25% of the GDP waste model's projection, with a current recycling rate not exceeding 5%. This data highlights the untapped resource potential and underscores the urgency of establishing a robust European value chain and infrastructure to facilitate the reuse and recycling of composite materials. In the long term, establishing an extensive collection and sorting system for composite waste is crucial for achieving a comprehensive circular economy.
The European Green Deal aims to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050, with its circular economy plan requiring products to be more sustainable and energy-efficient. Composites, with their lightweight, durable, and low-maintenance characteristics, play an irreplaceable role in traditional high-environmental-impact industries such as construction, power generation, transportation, and defense, fully supporting the circular economy model. However, to achieve a true circular economy, sustainable management of waste materials must also be addressed.
Significant progress has been made in the field of composite recycling. For instance, Finland's KiMuRa program successfully utilizes composite waste in cement production, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1 metric ton per ton of waste compared to incineration. Additionally, various recycling technologies have been implemented, with more innovative approaches under development.
To accurately gauge the volume of composite waste, EuCIA has designed an estimation model based on data from the 27 EU member states, Turkey, and the UK. The model correlates the volume of composite materials used in specific years with the economic wealth of consuming regions, incorporating global production data provided by JEC since 2010 to estimate composite usage in Europe. It also accounts for the time lag between production and disposal, as well as the average service life of composites in different fields, to reflect when components are likely to reach the end of their life cycle.
Although the volume of composite waste is relatively small, its importance in the circular economy is increasingly prominent. EuCIA's analysis not only estimates the scale of composite waste streams across different market sectors but also emphasizes the urgent need to establish appropriate collection and recycling infrastructure. By redefining the concept of "waste" and seizing the opportunity to build a circular composite ecosystem, we can recover and reuse these valuable resources, propelling the circular economy for composite materials to new heights.