Recover: regenerating the strength and value of glass fibres thermally recycled from end-of-life GRP composites

The recovery and reuse of end-of-life GRP in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective manner is one of the most important challenges facing the polymer composites industry. A number of processes for recycling GRP are available or under development. However, nearly all options deliver recycled glass fibres which are not cost-performance competitive due to the huge drop in performance of recycled glass fibre compared to its original state. A breakthrough in the regeneration of recycled glass fibre performance has the potential to totally transform the economics of recycling such GRP composites. This presentation will review the status of the ReCoVeR project which is focussed on the enabling cost-effective regeneration of the performance and value of glass fibres obtained from thermal recycling of end-of-life GRP and GRP manufacturing waste. Highlights of our latest results will be presented with emphasis on our breakthrough treatments to regenerate the properties of thermally conditioned glass fibres.