AFRA targets 90 per cent recyclability of global fleet by 2016
The Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA) aims to recycle material from 90 per cent of all aircraft that will reach their end-of-service around the globe by 2016, said Jeanne Yu, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s director for airplane environmental performance, at the association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. AFRA and Boeing also aim to reduce the amount of aircraft manufacturing waste which goes into landfills by 25 per cent by 2012. The association said that there is a need to improve the quality of recycled composite materials and to find new applications and markets both inside and outside the aviation sector. Using recycled carbon fibre instead of new fibre reduces CO2 emissions by 90-95 per cent. More than 12,000 aircraft are expected to reach the end of their service life in the next 20 years.
