Regulatory and professional context
Recycling of composite materials

European legislation impacts the composites industry through the following directives.

European Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC): effective end 2004, limits organic compounds in waste (Germany <5%, others >10%). Landfilling of composite materials is set to be banned in many countries.

European Directive on incineration conditions (2000/76/EC): limits the level of energy recovery. Halogenated and contaminated fiber-reinforced plastic (composite) waste is treated as chemical waste.

European Directive on End-of-Life-Vehicles (ELV) (2000/53/EC): specifies rules for dismantling, reusing, recycling and recovering components/materials/energy from end-of-life vehicles. From 2006, 80% of...