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It's Just String & Glue. This is a newsletter about composites, the strings, the glues, and the business.


Circularity Challenges and Opportunities for the Composites Recycling and Reuse Business
#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #reuse, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin This post is the fourth in the series that introduces the ideas spelled out in my second book, just released – “Sustainable Composite Materials: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”. In the first three posts I talked about sustainability and circularity in the raw materials supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint in the making of both fiber and resin, and reducing the carbon footprint in the pro
6 days ago8 min read


How to Make Composites Processing and Fabrication Sustainable
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fabrication, #processequipment This week’s newsletter is the third in my series laying out the roadmap to sustainability in composites. But before I get started, I need to let everyone know that my second book, “Sustainable Composite Materials, A Roadmap to a Circular Economy” is officially released as of April 6 (Monday). The book covers the watershed of the issue of sustainability for these wonderful mate
Apr 88 min read


Reducing the Carbon Footprint of String and Glue (Fiber and Resin) Manufacture
#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfootprint, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins Last week I wrote about the raw materials for composites and how high their carbon footprint is, primarily because at present most if not all raw materials for advanced composites are based in petroleum – big oil. This week I want to follow the roadmap outlined in my new book to the next step. That step is the production process for the fibers and resins that make up modern composites, that i
Apr 110 min read


DARPA is Looking to Convert Ag Waste into Useful Stuff
#composites, #sustainability, #agwaste, #forestproductswaste, #woodwaste, #DARPA I know I promised to talk about my upcoming book in this and the next few posts, but I saw such an interesting article on LinkedIn on March 2 (last Monday) from DARPA of all places that I had to write about it. I’ll weave the book back in a bit later in this post after I describe what I saw from DARPA. Fleetwood Project – DARPA Biological Technologies Office March 2, 2026 The article is about an
Mar 118 min read


Lots of Carbon Fiber in Winter Olympics Equipment
#composites, #carbonfiber, #sportsequipment, #winterolympics, #carboncomposites I have been watching the Olympic Games going on in Italy like most of the rest of us. Sunday a week ago was the men’s Luge competition and thankfully there weren’t any horrible accidents. That sport is not only exciting it is also nerve racking to watch. Eighty miles an hour on a little sled barely long enough to hold the slider, going around high banked turns where the smallest mistake could b
Feb 188 min read


Flax, Flax, and More Flax, And Some Other Stuff
#composites, #sustainability, #flaxfiber, #biocomposites, #fibers There appears to be quite a bit of movement in the natural, plant-based fiber business this past week or two. Two announcements came out in Composites World about companies that are scaling up their flax fiber composite reinforcements business, and another one that I will talk about a bit later about a basalt fiber production facility being built in the Middle East. New Circular Structures USA Inc. Facility i
Feb 118 min read


Fireproof Carbon Composites and Using Composites to Reduce CO2 Emissions
#composites, #sustainability, #greenhousegasreduction, #fireproofcomposites, #fibers I saw a couple of interesting tidbits in Composites World this week that piqued my curiosity, so I thought I would dig in a little deeper and write about them and their potential impact on not only sustainability but also the composites business in general. DEECOM Recycled Fireproof Carbon Composite I’m going to start off with one that intrigued me because of a couple of things. First, what
Feb 47 min read


A Few More Tidbits in Composites Sustainability News
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I received my November Issue of the Composites World magazine (electronically of course) this week and as usual it had a couple of interesting developments in the world of composite materials sustainability, one of which is sort of fun – if you like water sports. So, I thought I would write about these and a couple of other things that I came across in my information feed about composites. A
Nov 12, 20255 min read


Update on REFRESH Project – New LCA Study on Wind Turbine Blades
#composites, #sustainability, #windenergy, #recycling, #renewableenergy A few weeks back I wrote a couple of articles, one about this project (REFRESH) and another about a company in Norway (Gjenkraft) that has gotten seed money to build a plant to recycle wind turbine blades using their pyrolysis process. And of course the day after I wrote the article the REFRESH project posted the results of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that they had performed by a consulting company in
Oct 15, 20256 min read


Recycled Carbon Fiber Use in the Clean and Renewable Energy Business
#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #carbonfiber, #renewableenergy I saw an announcement in Composites World that was repeated in...
Sep 24, 20257 min read


There’s a New Entrant in the Pyrolysis/Thermolysis Business
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I read this week both in Composites World and in JEC...
Sep 17, 20256 min read


Methanolysis – A Solution for Polyester Waste that Might Work with Composites
#composites, #sustainability, #recycledplastic, #methanolysis, #resins I saw an interesting post this week from an unlikely source that...
Sep 3, 20255 min read


Update on Microwave Processing to Make Carbon Fiber
#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfiber, #microwaves, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy I have written about this topic before, but...
Aug 19, 20256 min read


The International Conference on Composite Materials – And What’s Coming Soon
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I gave my paper at the International Conference on...
Aug 13, 20257 min read


Some Encouraging News in Carbon Fiber Composites Recycling – and a Few Other Things
#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #aceticacid, #NREL, #fibers, #resins I saw something really interesting that was just reported...
Jul 23, 20258 min read


Composites Recycling in France Goes Full AI
#composites, #sustainability, #AI, #recycling, #carbonfiber I saw a very interesting news article this week about Fairmat, a French...
Jul 8, 20257 min read


Biocomposites on Airplanes – Coming Soon to Your Flight
#composites, #sustainability, #biocomposites, #plantbased, #fibers, #resins You heard me right, both of the major transport aircraft...
Jul 2, 20255 min read


Cellulose as the New Plastic – Can it Help with the Microplastics Problem?
#composites, #sustainability, #cellulose, #plastic, #biodegradable, #microplastics, #ocean I came across a really interesting article in...
Apr 14, 20259 min read


Sustainability – A Look at Energy Efficiency in Composites Manufacturing
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibermanufacture, #resinmanufacture This week I thought I would touch...
Apr 7, 202510 min read


Recycled Thermoplastics and Recycled Fibers – a Pretty Good Mix
#composites, #sustainability, #thermoplastics, #recycledfibers, #recycledresin I saw an article in Composites World this week that I...
Mar 31, 20257 min read

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