#composites, #textiles, #naturalfibers, #bioresins, #historyofcomposites I read a really good book this last week about the history of textiles.  The title of the book is “The Fabric of Civilization, How Textiles Made the World” by Virginia Postrel.  This book is a number one bestseller that my wife bought for all of us in the family to read.  It was recommended by John and Hank Green, the Vlog Brothers who also are the creators of the Crash Course series of educational YouTu

#composites, #sustainability, #rotorsails, #environmentalproductdeclaration, #recycling There has been a bit going on since my last post in 2025, so I thought this week I would catch everyone up with the sustainability initiatives across not only the composites industry itself, but in industries and sectors of the economy that are making heavy use and initial use of composites. Anemoi Rotor Sails on Union Maritime Chemical Tankers – CW 12/26/2025 First I want to talk a bit ab

#composites, #fiberglass, #structural_shapes, #construction, #composites_in_construction In this last post of 2025, I wanted to complete what I started last week and talk about fiberglass being used for structure in the construction industry.  Specifically I want to chat a bit about the evolution of what we have today as standard structural shapes as well as where these products are beginning to replace steel in construction. Fiberglass Roof Truss System Made Using Strongwell

#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

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #end_of_life_composites, #thermolysis This week I’m going to make my newsletter just a bit shorter than what I did last week with all of the pictures of sailboats that use recycled or natural fibers for primary structure.  There are a couple of fairly newsworthy things that have happened just in the last few weeks that I want to focus on this week.  And I want to also let everyone know that I am going to take a couple of weeks off wri

#racingsailboats, #sustainability, #naturalfiber, #flaxfiber, #bamboofiber, #bioresins I saw an article in Composites World this week about a flax fiber boat manufacturer I wrote about two and a half years ago – Greenboats – that has been building recreational sailboat hulls since about 2020 using flax fiber.  They source their flax of course from France which grows more of this stuff than any other country in Europe.  Anyway, the article is about a strategic partnership betw

#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

#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

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins Since this is supposed to be a “newsletter” I thought I would collect some tidbits of news on the composites sustainability front that have come across my feed in the last couple of weeks.  I did want to get a couple of state of the art posts done, so the last two weeks I haven’t been keeping everyone up with the latest news.  And there has been some news to keep up with, especially in the rec

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #carbonfiber, #thermolysis, #solvolysis Last week I went through the state of the art in wind turbine blade recycling, which could alternatively have been titled “state of the art in glass fiber recycling” because most of the wind turbine blades that have come to the end of their useful life or are nearing their demise are primarily made of glass fiber composites.  In some of the larger blades, there is a carbon fiber spar cap that I

#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

#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

#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfiber, #recycling, #fibers, #resins I mentioned this work in my post just after the ICCM conference...

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #recycledfiber, #recycledresin I have talked in this space about composites sustainability,...

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #carbonfiber, #renewableenergy I saw an announcement in Composites World that was repeated in...

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I read this week both in Composites World and in JEC...

#composites, #sustainability, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy, #fibers, #resins I saw articles this week in two of the industry...

#composites, #sustainability, #recycledplastic, #methanolysis, #resins I saw an interesting post this week from an unlikely source that...

#composites, #sustainability, #plantbased, #biocomposites, #fibers, #resins Article reposted from www.nedpatton.com I saw a brief snippet...

#composites, #sustainability, #carbonfiber, #microwaves, #energyefficiency, #renewableenergy I have written about this topic before, but...