EXEL COMPOSITES WHITEPAPER CHARTS PATH TOWARD CIRCULARITY IN COMPOSITES MANUFACTURING
Global composites manufacturer Exel Composites has released a new whitepaper calling for a decisive shift toward circularity in the composites sector, titled ‘ Sustainability in the composites industry: an overview’. The publication outlines how manufacturers can embed sustainability into design, production, and end-of-life management to reduce environmental impact while maintaining performance and reliability .
T he whitepaper examines the environmental impact of composites throughout their lifecycle. It highlights the industry’s reliance on virgin raw materials and the growing determination to address the recycling chal- lenge posed by composites’ durability. Drawing on examples from industrial-scale recycling initiatives and Exel’s internal programs, the paper argues that design choices and efficient pro- duction are just as important as end-of-life processes. It empha- sizes the need for transparency, interoperability, and shared res- ponsibility across the value chain to close these gaps. Authored by Exel’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Sustainability, Kim Sjödahl, the whitepaper brings together insight from research and operations teams across Europe and Asia. Sjödahl is a long-standing contributor to the European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA) and its European Cir- cular Composites Alliance (ECCA), which work to establish uni- fied sustainability standards across the sector. “Circularity begins with design,” said Sjödahl. “The choices made at the start of a product’s life determine how easily it can be reused, repurposed, or recycled later. Manufacturers must think beyond single products and consider how each decision affects the wider material ecosystem.” The paper outlines Exel’s own lifecycle approach as an example of how industry ambition can translate into measu- rable change. Recent initiatives include a partnership with Fair- mat to recycle carbon fiber waste through low-energy robotic cutting, and collaborations with Alta Performance Materials and Owens Corning to integrate bio-based and recycled raw mate- rials into manufacturing. Exel’s Finnish facilities now use exclu- sively renewably-produced electricity, divert more than 99 per cent of waste from landfill and reintroduce hundreds of tons of recovered material into production annually. Against this backdrop, the report addresses one of the industry’s most persistent challenges; how to achieve recycling at scale. Cement co-processing remains the most commercially viable recycling route for composites, but more opportunities are developing all the time. Competing interests risk turning advo- cates for recycling methods like pyrolysis and solvolysis into rival camps, slowing collective progress toward circularity. Rat-
her than setting these approaches against one another, Sjödahl envisions a common direction in which established and emer- ging technologies evolve together. Sjödahl concluded: “Circularity will not be achieved through competition but through coordination. Every actor across the value chain has a role to play. By sharing data, aligning goals, and combining expertise, the composites industry can move faster toward a sustainable future.”
20 MUOVIPLAST 1/2026
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker