Why Recycle

In 2000, global production of carbon fibre was around 10,000 tonnes, and recycling wasn’t a priority.

Today, driven by growth in commercial aerospace, wind energy and industrial applications such as pressure vessels, demand is over 100,000 tonnes per year.
As much as 30% of this production is wasted in the manufacturing process.
The annual environmental costs of this waste are 22,350 TJ of energy use—enough to meet the needs for 0.4 million households for a year, 1 million tonnes of CO2—equivalent to 7,000 transatlantic flights and 26 million litres of water—enough to meet the needs of 500,000 people for a year.

The amount of carbon fibre in end-of-life components is expected to exceed 40,000 tonnes per year within a decade. This will consume about 160,000 m3 of landfill per year—about the same as needed for 400,000 people.

At Gen2Carbon, we are committed to reducing these impacts by recovering the fibres from manufacturing waste and end-of-service carbon fibre intensive structures and returning it to the market for applications where it can provide a technically acceptable alternative to virgin carbon fibre.