The EuCIA team enjoyed a busy programme of meetings at the International Composites Summit (ICS) in Milton Keynes last week. This UK event brings the composites community together to build connections, share knowledge, and discover the latest advances in composite materials.
Circularity perspectives
One of EuCIA’s highlights of this year’s ICS was the conference session on European Circularity Perspectives on 5th September. We were delighted to find a large audience gathered at the Sustainability Stage for our presentation Composite materials in circular economy: opportunities and challenges. For this, EuCIA’s President, Professor Roberto Frassine, teamed up with Steven Brown, Technology & Sustainability Development Manager at Scott Bader, to discuss the circularity of composite materials. This included a discussion of the different recycling options for composites, and presented EuCIA’s estimates of composites waste volumes for different markets (we will publish updated figures soon).
We also looked beyond recycling to the different options for lifetime extension (re-use, repair, repurpose etc.) and explained how we are working to take composites circularity to the next level by promoting cooperation across the value chain and preparing the groundwork for a Circular Composites Alliance. More information about this will be released in the coming weeks.
The session was moderated by EuCIA’s Managing Director Raphaël Pleynet and the Q&A provided a valuable opportunity to gather the audience’s opinions and insights.
Composites in the UK
We were also honored to attend a meeting of the Composites UK Sustainability Sub-Group. We learnt about the group’s recent achievements in demonstrating the circularity of composites, and joined an interesting discussion to identify the different case studies illustrating recycling and reuse of composites materials.
It was an opportunity to share EuCIA’s vision and to be inspired by the UK’s current efforts to rapidly reach net-zero.
We also shared an emotional moment, observing a minute of silence for Professor Alan Banks, Chairman of Composites UK, who recently passed away. Alan was a friend of EuCIA and such a great promotor of composites materials in the automotive industry. We will miss him.
Save the date for 2025
EuCIA is proud to be an official supporter of the International Composites Summit (ICS). We congratulate the organisers Composites UK (a member of EuCIA) and Fluency on another successful event, which provides an excellent platform to connect, educate, and inspire industry professionals across the entire composites spectrum.
Next year, ICS will take place on 17-18 September, at the same venue in Milton Keynes. See you there!
