National Composites Week: Sustainability

As we celebrate National Composites Week, it’s important to look at the many ways the composites industry is working toward a sustainable world. Lightweighting in aerospace and automotive through the use of carbon fiber and other composites helps to conserve fuel and reduce CO2 emissions. Glass fiber and carbon fiber composites are used in wind turbine blades, providing a sustainable source of energy to communities across the globe. Natural fibers and bio-resins provide sustainable materials for use in products in a variety of fields.

Products created with composites are much more corrosion resistant than many traditional building materials including wood, steel and concrete. Fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) is playing an increasing important role in infrastructure. It is being used to rehab and reinforce existing infrastructure and also is gaining more consideration for new building projects. FRP rebar doesn’t corrode and decay the concrete it reinforces the way iron rebar does. 

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Here are a few stories CW has reported on in the past few months that illustrate some of the ways composites contribute to our sustainability efforts.

• The state of recycled carbon fiber
• Podcast: CW Talks interviews recycled carbon fiber startup Elevated Materials
• Building confidence in recycled carbon fiber
• Decommissioned wind turbine blades used for cement co-processing
• Natural fiber enables e-bike for package delivery
• Natural fiber composites: What’s holding them back?
• Zero-waste: New process, equipment recycles prepreg, tape offal

About National Composites Week

National Composites Week was organized and launched by braiding specialist A&P Technology (Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), global advanced composites company Hexcel (Stamford, Conn., U.S.) and CompositesWorld to celebrate the myriad ways that composite materials and composites manufacturing contributes to the products and structures that shape the American manufacturing landscape today. 

Go to www.NationalCompositesWeek.com for more information, and to download a Host Guide, a sample press release, a sample letter to the editor and other templates designed to help participants develop and execute events and outreach at their facilities. Use the hashtag #NationalCompositesWeek during the week to join the celebration!