Climate change and its effects are a frequent topic in the news media, but the coverage isn’t merely theoretical. Companies are under increasing pressure to adopt sustainable business practices. If composites manufacturers haven’t yet heard from customers requesting information on how they are addressing climate change, they will soon. Responding to federal and state regulations, as well as pressure from investors and other stakeholders, organizations from automakers to state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are asking suppliers to reduce the emission of climate-warming gases and improve the resilience of products in the face of climate change. And while the focus today is on climate change, our industry will also be expected to assess and act to reduce other sustainability impacts, such as the generation of waste (in the form of solid waste, discharge to water and emissions to the air of volatile organic compounds and particulate) and the use of potentially toxic substances. Making composites the sustainable material of choice is a focus of ACMA’s newly revised strategic plan. Under the plan, ACMA’s Climate Impact Project (CIP) will provide member companies with education and resources to succeed in a sustainability driven marketplace for structural materials. Development of the components of the CIP (shown in Figure 1) will be completed by mid-2023.

Cradle-to-Gate Climate Impacts

Successfully participating in today’s marketplace requires suppliers to provide assessments of the climate impacts associated with the manufacture of their products and raw materials. These cradle-to-gate life cycle assessments (LCA) are needed by end users like automakers and state DOTs so these organizations can assess their own cradle-to-gate (or cradle-to-grave) impacts. Developing an LCA for a product is the first step in the process of decarbonization, followed by reducing the product’s cradle-to-gate impacts. Many large companies have announced plans to move toward climate neutral or carbon net zero supply chains. The federal government is pressing recipients of grants or loans for products like highway bridges and water treatment systems and suppliers of products directly to the government such as cars and aircraft to move toward low carbon materials. An LCA identifies the source of climate impacts associated with the manufacture of a product and raw materials and provides a baseline against which to measure progress in reducing those impacts. Manufacturers of composite products for most markets will have to invest in the routine preparation of LCAs for their products. ACMA’s CIP will include tools and guidance to make the process of developing LCAs more understandable, reliable and cost efficient for composites manufacturers. ACMA completed a Life Cycle Inventory Report in 2012 that illustrates how an LCA can identify opportunities for a composites manufacturer to reduce cradle-to-gate climate impacts. For example, the report indicates the largest amount of climate impact for a typical open molded product is associated with the resin used to make the product. (The emission of significant quantities of climate warming gases associated with resin production is driven largely by the high-temperature steam cracking of hydrocarbons to produce the small reactive molecules used as building blocks in the production of polymers.) For a typical compression molded product, the process energy (electricity) needed to heat dies, operate presses and produce molding compound accounts for the largest share of the climate impact. Composites manufacturers will have to work with suppliers to identify raw materials or processes with reduced climate impacts. Companies should also collaborate with providers of electricity, natural gas and other energy sources to evaluate the availability of energy streams associated with reduced climate impacts. For example, most electric utilities can already provide power from renewable sources, such as wind or hydropower, at a price premium.

Use-Phase Benefits

The sustainability landscape isn’t all doom-and-gloom for the composites industry. Replacing traditional materials with composites brings important sustainability benefits – high strength, low weight, corrosion resistance, durability. And then there are the important products that would not be possible without composites, such as wind turbine blades. But what about climate change? Does the use of composites instead of traditional materials reduce the emission of climate warming gases? There have been some efforts to quantitatively demonstrate that this is true, and composites do provide some benefit, but overall the results are not very compelling. These comparative analyses heavily depend on assumptions about the extent of the system – the exact design, construction, use and end-of-life disposal practices, as well as the assumed lifespan of the materials and assembled end-use product. And it is not clear how to account for benefits that occur in the future, such as not needing to replace a composite-reinforced bridge deck at 75 years when a steel-reinforced deck would need to be replaced. It may be more important to educate infrastructure users and product consumers about the hard-to-quantify social advantages of composites. For example, people living in storm- or wildfire-prone areas could be informed about the resilience of composite utility poles. Similarly, communities with highway bridges needing extensive maintenance or replacement could be informed that the resulting traffic disruption, inconvenience and economic loss can be avoided if composites are used to reconstruct or replace the bridges. Increasing awareness of the use-phase sustainability benefits of composite products supports the industry advancing toward a circular economy and the consequent reduction of certain business risks.

Reducing the Risks of a Linear Economy

According to a widely accepted analysis advanced by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, our national economy is dominated by a linear model of production and consumption, in which goods are manufactured from raw materials, sold, used and then discarded as waste. By contrast a circular economy is designed to be restorative and regenerative and aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value. The linear economy is under increasing challenge in several ways:

• Material recycling and waste-based energy recovery captures only a small fraction of the original raw material value, and most of the value of extracted materials is simply thrown away after their initial use.
• A linear system increases the exposure of companies to the risks of volatile resource prices and supply disruptions, which increase uncertainty and discourage businesses from investing.
• A linear economy exposes companies to the risk of regulations to curtail and price negative environmental and social impacts.
• Shareholders and lenders, employees and consumers are ready to “deselect” companies failing to respond to the climate change and other environmental and social challenges, and citizens in a growing number of states and localities are voicing the same expectations of their governments, public services and utilities.

Conversely, in a circular economy the only inputs to the system are from renewable sources, and the only outputs are the value of the products enjoyed by society. (A perfectly circular composites industry is illustrated in Figure 2.) Of course, perfect circularity is not a necessary or practical objective. But the less circular our industry’s economy is, the more likely it is to face the business challenges described above. When we refer to a composites industry economy, we are talking about the flow of economic value through the industry, from extraction of raw materials to final disposal of materials and products. Moving toward a circular economy means preserving the value of raw materials and products as long as possible by lengthening the time that they provide useful service and repurposing them when they no longer fulfil their original function or recycling them into high-value products. The following approaches could be used by composites manufacturers to increase circularity and reduce business risks:

• Promote the use of durable and long-lasting composites to increase the economic value obtained from the raw materials and energy used to produce an end-use product.
• Recover and recycle plant waste and end-of-life products into materials used to produce new composite products or convert the waste into materials used as high-value inputs by another industry.
• Work with suppliers to identify materials and energy sources derived from renewable resources.
• Reduce the use of potentially toxic materials.

Composite products already provide increased durability, resilience and longevity. An increased awareness of the sustainability benefits of composite products during use may drive market growth more than quantitative data from LCAs and may be needed to avoid imposition of taxes, regulations or other government policies aimed at the mishandling of non-durable plastic products like packaging.

Composites Recycling

Recovering the resins and reinforcement fibers from end-of-life composites and using them to manufacture new composite products or as high-value inputs to other processes would increase the lifecycle value of raw materials, reduce reliance on limited sources of non-renewable resources and reduce the amount of disposed waste. The most widely reported activity using end-of-life composites that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills is the use of ground up wind turbine blades as an input to cement manufacturing, but this may not be the best model for the industry as a whole. Blades are taken out of service at predictable times and places, while the disposal of most other types of composite products is widely dispersed in time and location and the collection of significant quantities of material would be much more complicated, expensive and environmentally impactful. Further, to be considered fully sustainable, the output of a recycling process should be used back in the process that made the original product, reducing the industry’s use of high-value virgin materials. Finally, one study concluded that the emission of climate warming gases from the use of out-of-service blades as an input to cement manufacturing could exceed the amount emitted if the blades were directly landfilled. To achieve overarching results, the industry should continue to support development of economically and environmentally sustainable collection and recycling technologies that provide high-value products. Even though such technologies may not be viable in the near term, eventually all industries will be expected to substantially reduce their use of non-renewable resources. In the meantime, there isn’t a shortage of landfill space in most of the United States. Composite materials are inert and will not degrade in a landfill and release pollutants into the water or air. The environmental and social impacts of disposing of this material in local landfills is likely less than transporting the material significant distances to where it will be processed and used. It is possible that government action will change the economics of recycling composites. Motivated by the accumulation of discarded plastic in the ocean and the dumping of plastic waste in less developed countries, some members of Congress are considering taxes on virgin resin or other incentives for increased recycling, and the same motivation is behind efforts to craft a global plastics treaty requiring end-of-life recycling of all polymers. As discussed earlier, composite products typically provide decades of significant environmental and social benefits during their use. Increasing public awareness of the use-phase sustainability benefits of composites may be as important as recycling for escaping taxes, regulations or other government policies aimed at reducing the mishandling of discarded single-use, non-durable plastic products like packaging. To summarize, the composites industry needs to respond to the needs of its customers by assessing and then acting to reduce the climate impacts associated with the manufacture of composite products and raw materials. And the industry can reduce the risk of recycling mandates, taxes or other regulatory requirements, as well as support increased use of its products, by increasing public awareness of the use-phase sustainability benefits of composites. Looking to the future, the industry should continue to support development of recycling technologies and logistics that provide high-value products and are economically and environmentally sustainable.   John Schweitzer is senior advisor to the president at ACMA. Email comments to jschweitzer@acmanet.org. For more information on ACMA’s Climate Impact Project, visit acmanet.org/acmas-climate-impact-project/.