Recycling and valorization of glass fibre thermoset composite waste by cold incorporation into a sustainable inorganic polymer matrix

Industrial applications using recycled fibres or resins are still rare due to inferior performance to cost ratio. In most cases, glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials with thermoset matrices are considered unsuitable for reprocessing and reuse as a valuable reinforcement of composites. In this work, mechanical frictional grinding is utilized to recover the reinforcement fibres, which are still partially coated with the used epoxy resin. For the first time, the possibility and valorization potential of incorporating all the recycled GFRP waste into a Fe-rich silicate slag, a byproduct of non-ferrous metallurgy production, is evaluated. The results show that this doublerecycling route does not only allow for a much greater level of GFRP waste incorporation (20 wt%) in the inorganic matrix but also achieves remarkable flexural strength enhancement (79%) when compared with other results from the literature on fiber-reinforced cementitious materials.

Automated summary

Industrial applications using recycled fibres or resins are still rare due to inferior performance to cost ratio. Mechanical frictional grinding is utilized to recover the reinforcement fibres, and incorporating all the recycled GFRP waste into a Fe-rich silicate slag shows remarkable flexural strength enhancement in the inorganic matrix.