The ECCA Working Groups
The activities of the European Circular Composites Alliance are enabled through five Working Groups. ECCA members can join one, or more, of the Working Groups.
Chair: David Tilbrook, Hexcel Composites
Vice-Chair: Gabriele Badini, Westlake
Mission: We unite the European aerospace and defence composites community with stakeholders to create practical, collaborative solutions that keep valuable materials in circulation. By working together across the entire composites value chain we aim to increase our sector’s composites recycling and reuse rates and deliver environmental and economic benefits for industry and society.
David Tilbrook: “The Aerospace and Defence Working Group is dedicated to maximising the retention of value in advanced composites vital for aviation and defence. Our goal is to enhance recycling rates of both composite production residual materials and end-of-service composites. This will be achieved through proactive collaboration and engagement across supply chains within and outside our sector.”
Chair: Charles Göbbels, Reprocover
Vice-chair: Thomas Wegman, AOC
Mission:
- Establish a robust eco-system for continuing to use composite materials in cars, trucks, buses, and trains.
- Promoting and advancing their circularity, either within the road vehicle value chain or in adjacent composite value chains.
- Through collaboration across the value chain, we will:
- Overcome barriers to circularity.
- Promote eco-design.
- Help to scale solutions that extend vehicle lifetime, reduce environmental impact, and support European industries to remain competitive.
Thomas Wegman: “Composites bring lightweight and great aerodynamics to cars, trucks and trains. It goes without saying that we should reuse or recycle these valuable materials after many years of service.”
Chair: Enrico Benco, GS4C srl
Vice-chair: Sam Donegani, Composite Braiding Ltd
Mission:
To build a connected European ecosystem where composites flow seamlessly across industries, enabling the full realisation of closed-loop circularity where materials preserve their intrinsic value and re-enter their own value chains.
Sam Donegani: “My personal objective is to help to build a world-leading composites community for Europe that leads the way in efficiently and effectively using and re-using composites for environmental and economic benefit.”
Chair: Julia Minici, Afterwind
Vice-chair: Lorenzo Grazia, Polynt
Mission: To develop a complete package of solutions – turning end-of-use composites into high-performance materials, improving traceability and standards, and scaling sustainable technologies – we aim to create new markets and industries, build greener, safer, and more resilient communities, strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, and set a global benchmark for circular construction.
Julia Minici: “The dream of the Construction Working Group is a Europe where recycled composite materials define the built environment ꟷ where façades, bridges and infrastructure are designed for circularity, recovered materials flow seamlessly back into new applications, and construction becomes a catalyst for a truly circular economy.”
Chair: Philip Easthill, European Boating Industry (EBI)
Vice-chair: Helen Boston, Alta
Mission:
- Foster synergies across all Working Groups and break down barriers between sectors (ensure alignment and enable market cross-over connections as well as regulatory cross-over points).
- Address regulatory and funding barriers (EU level, mapping of best practices and points of concern at national level).
- Strengthen end-user markets and awareness across all of the composite ecosystem and adopt a total industry view to address circularity across composites.
Philip Easthill: “The cooperation across the composites value chain and all use sectors is essential to realise the cross-sectoral potential of composites circularity and recycling. For EBI, this is an essential step to advance a key priority for our sector.”
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