Exel publishes new whitepaper on sustainability and circularity

We have published a new whitepaper, “Sustainability in the composites industry: an overview”, outlining how the composites sector can accelerate its shift toward circularity. The paper explores how sustainability can be embedded into design, production, and end-of-life management to reduce environmental impact while maintaining performance and reliability.

Authored by Kim Sjödahl, Exel’s Senior Vice President, Technology & Sustainability, the publication examines the full lifecycle of composites and highlights the sector’s reliance on virgin raw materials alongside the recycling challenges created by durable fiber-reinforced materials. Drawing on industrial-scale recycling initiatives and Exel’s own programs, it emphasizes that circularity begins with design and requires transparency and shared responsibility across the value chain.

The whitepaper also highlights how Exel is putting a lifecycle approach into practice—from our partnership with Fairmat to recycle carbon-fiber waste through low-energy robotic cutting, to collaborations with Alta Performance Materials and Owens Corning to integrate bio-based and recycled raw materials into manufacturing. Our Finnish facilities now operate on 100% renewably produced electricity, divert over 99% of waste from landfill and reintroducing hundreds of tons of recovered material into production each year.

The whitepaper also addresses one of the industry’s central challenges: scaling composite recycling. While cement co-processing remains the most commercially viable route today, emerging methods such as pyrolysis and solvolysis continue to advance. Rather than competing approaches, the paper calls for coordination across the value chain to accelerate progress.

“Circularity will not be achieved through competition but through coordination,” Sjödahl notes. “By sharing data, aligning goals, and combining expertise, the industry can move faster toward a sustainable future.”

Access the full whitepaper here:

https://ideas.exelcomposites.com/whitepaper-sustainability-in-the-composites-industry