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


Glass Fiber Composites in the Construction Industry
#composites, #sustainability, #rebar, #fiberglass, #frp_rebar, #concrete_reinforcement I thought for this week I would change course a little bit and talk about the construction industry and the application of composites to that industry. The thing that prompted this is an article in Composites World (12/1/2025) announcing that ACMA – The American Composites Manufacturers Association – has put out what they call a product category rule or PCR for fiberglass rebar. And for t
3 days ago7 min read


Composite Fiber from Rocks? Yes, as a Matter of Fact
#composites, #sustainability, #basaltfiber, #basalt, #fibers I have been seeing some interesting posts lately about the application of basalt fibers to all manner of composite material products and parts. I had not thought much about it until a recent post in Composites World (11/10/2025) talked about a new replacement for steel rebar made from basalt fibers. For those of you that aren’t rock people or that did not grow up in a part of the country where there were volcanoes
Nov 198 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 125 min read


What is the State of the Art in Wind Turbine Blade Recycling
#composites, #recycling, #windenergy, #thermolysis, #solvolysis, #pyrolysis, #sustainability I have talked about this repeatedly by giving examples of companies and organizations, some largely funded and supported by governments, in previous posts. This week, I thought I would provide a summary of what I see as the State of the Art in recycling wind turbine blades here in the US and in the EU and UK. A lot has happened in the last couple of years, and some companies are not
Oct 229 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 156 min read


Investors are Interested and Taking Notice of the Recycled Composites Business
#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin I have talked in this space about composites sustainability,...
Sep 306 min read


Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades have Arrived
#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I saw articles this week in two of the industry...
Sep 106 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 35 min read


What’s New in Plant Based Fiber Precursors?
#composites, #sustainability, #plantbased, #biocomposites, #fibers, #resins Article reposted from www.nedpatton.com I saw a brief snippet...
Aug 275 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 196 min read


Some New and Weird (Maybe?) Plant-Based Textiles that Might End Up in Composites
#composites, #sustainability, #plantbased, #mushroomfiber, #pineapplefiber, #bananafiber, #seaweed My wife sent me a SciShow link this...
Jul 157 min read


Fully Bio-Based Carbon Fiber Almost Ready to Come Out of the Lab
#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfiber, #cellulose, #lignin, #plantbased Last week I focused on the up and coming composite resins...
Jun 106 min read


Some More Uses for Recycled Carbon Fiber – Flexible Solar Panels?
#composites, #sustainability, #recycledfiber, #carbonfiber, #fibers, #resins I saw a really cool article in one of my news feeds that I...
May 256 min read


Hodgepodge of Recycled and Renewable Composites Applications
#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #recycledfiber, #plantbased, #biocomposite This week is going to be sort of a hodgepodge of...
Apr 217 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 149 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 710 min read


What’s Happening in Plant-Based Composites?
#composites, #sustainability, #biocomposite, #naturalfibers, #plantbasedresins, #plantbased I have written about biocomposites, plant...
Mar 267 min read


Part 4 of PFAS and Microplastics – Vinyl Ester Resin Chemistry and Manufacture
#composites, #vinylgroup, #styrene, #acrylics, #polyvinylchloride, #resins This week I’m going to finish the polyester/epoxy resin part...
Mar 117 min read


Part 3 of PFAS and Microplastics – Polyester Resin Chemistry
#composites, #polyesterresin, #styrene, #phthalicacid, #glycols, #resins This is a continuation of what I talked about last week but...
Mar 37 min read


Part 2 of PFAS and Microplastics – Epoxy Resin Production
#composites, #toxicchemicals, #epoxy, #bpa, #epichlorohydrin, #bisphenol-a, #resin As promised, this week I’m going to write about the...
Feb 257 min read

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