Four industries, one laminate
Wind, marine, aerospace and waste management are reaching the end-of-life question for composites at the same time. Each sector brings a different feedstock and a different economic case, but all of them share the same underlying problem: thermoset composites that were never designed to be taken apart.
WIND ENERGY
Blades come down faster than capacity is built
The first generation of onshore turbines has passed its design life, and repowering releases blades in large batches rather than spreading them over time. Blades are the difficult fraction of a turbine, and since 1 January 2026 the industry's landfill commitment has removed the default disposal option.
A blade is a system of materials: glass and carbon spar caps, balsa and PET cores, structural adhesives, steel root inserts, lightning conductors and coatings, each of which behaves differently in every recovery route. We define the segregation sequence, size the treatment capacity and test the financial case against a lender's downside scenarios.
What arrives
GFRP shell and web, CFRP spar cap, balsa and PET core, structural adhesive, steel root inserts, lightning receptors, gelcoat and leading-edge protection.
Questions we answer
How many tonnes, and when. Whether to cut on site or transport whole. Which route tolerates which contamination. Whether treatment capacity will be there when the blades come down.
MARINE
The stream nobody owns
Most of Europe's recreational boats are small craft that stay in service for decades, and a growing number reach the end of their life every year. The European boating industry has committed to phasing out landfill and energy recovery for this stream by 2030.
Unlike a wind farm, no single owner manages marine decommissioning. Hulls arrive dispersed, uncertified and in variable condition, with water-saturated cores, mixed resin systems and metal fittings. We specify the feedstock envelope, the pre-treatment steps, the collection capacity and the economics of the scheme, including how it is funded.
What arrives
GRP hull and deck, balsa or PVC core, gelcoat and antifouling residue, metal fittings, tanks and wiring, and occasional aramid or CFRP.
Questions we answer
What pre-treatment the hull needs. What collection costs per tonne. How the operation will be classified. Which funding mechanism can carry the scheme.
AEROSPACE
The cleanest feedstock, held back by traceability
Aerospace produces the highest-value composite waste and recovers the least of it. Manufacturing offcut is clean, single-resin material and an ideal feedstock, yet most of it is never collected because there is no route to aggregate it. Retired airframes carry high value but also strict traceability and configuration-control requirements.
Recovered fibre without records of its resin system, cure history and service exposure cannot return to qualified applications, and ends up as filler. We develop offcut aggregation models, CFRP and aramid segregation protocols and the material records that keep recovered fibre commercially valuable.
What arrives
CFRP prepreg offcut and cured trim, aramid fabric, honeycomb core, bonded metal fittings, primary and secondary structure, sealants and coatings.
Questions we answer
How much offcut sits within an economic haul distance. Which fibre properties survive recovery. What records re-qualification requires. Whether segregation pays for itself.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Taking on a stream your permit was not written for
Waste operators and recyclers are absorbing composite waste as the producing industries run out of alternatives. The material is abrasive, light for its volume, high in inert content and highly variable in contamination.
Two decisions carry most of the risk: a loosely written feedstock specification, which creates an open-ended obligation to accept, and the classification of the operation as recovery or disposal, which governs the permit, the reporting and the client's compliance claim. We carry out plant technical due diligence, size throughput against the real feed, draft feedstock specifications and model the case, including the cost of routing residues.
What we review
Feedstock specification and acceptance criteria, throughput and availability, mass and energy balance, permitting envelope, gate fees and offtake pricing, wear and maintenance costs.
Questions we answer
What happens to throughput at lower bulk density. Where residues go and what they cost. Whether the guarantee holds on the real feed. Whether the debt service cover survives a 15% cut in gate fees.
ACROSS ALL FOUR SECTORS
The same question, asked earlier
Every sector starts from the same point: what actually arrives at the gate, how contaminated, how much and for how long. Only then can recovery rates, gate fees and offtake be tested against the real input rather than a demonstration sample.