Using waste composite in new products: ECOBULK progress presented at Recomp

This week, Olivia Bertham shared the latest details of the ECOBULK construction demonstrator at Recomp 2020. Recomp is CompositeUK's conference about the reuse and recycling of carbon and glass fibre composites, and showcased a number of other techniques for the recovery, reuse and recycling of carbon and glass fibre composite materials. The ECOBULK demonstrator uses waste composite, which currently has no viable use at the end of life, as a material in new composite products. The demonstrators are currently being installed at various locations around Europe.

For those who aren’t familiar, Ecobulk is a large-scale demonstration project contributing to “closing the loop” of composite products in the automotive, furniture and building sectors. It promotes the greater re-use, upgrade, refurbishment and recycling of products, parts, and materials - along entire newly-defined supply and value chains. Ecobulk is identifying and promoting common processes, technologies, products and services such that it can then be replicated to other industrial sectors.

The automotive, furniture and building sectors have been selected because they display many common points, such as in the design (for modularity / dismantling), materials (reinforced plastic composites), manufacturing technology (moulding, extrusion, hot pressing, thermo-bonding) and business models (leasing, renting, PSS, fix-it shops, etc.). Currently, large-scale demonstration activities are occurring in 7 countries with over 15 demonstrators addressing circular economy solutions (such as rethinking product design, ensuring technical and economic feasibility, reverse logistics, innovative business models), and dissemination is ongoing to link end-users to designers and help promote second life, reuse and recycling and material recovery.

Oakdene Hollins is developing the business planning and exploitation aspects of the project: designing circular value chains and business models; identifying barriers and solutions; & market analysis.

To follow the progress of ECOBULK or learn more about the project, please sign up for the newsletter at www.ECOBULK.eu or contact the Oakdene Hollins team.