The concept of the project lied in the full recovery of glass-fiber aircraft insulation materials and in the recycling of their constituents into new, competitive materials for building applications. In this context, the project envisaged recovery of the glass fibres, the polymeric bags and the thermosetting resin used as binder and aimed to develop and apply alternative routes for their recycling, including closed and open-loop systems, as well as primary and secondary recycling processes.

The final products of the project included:

• New insulation materials;
• A series of concrete samples incorporating alternative recycled materials (i.e. glass fibres, glass microparticles and polymeric microparticles);
• Glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites.

More specifically, following the acquisition and characterization of the end-of-life a/c insulation materials, their individual constituents were recovered and characterised to assess their processability. The proposed recycling routes for each constituents were summarised as follows:

1) Glass fibres:

• Closed loop recycling into new insulation materials;
• Use as reinforcement in polymer-matrix and concrete composites;
• Preparation and treatment of glass microparticles and their application in concrete.

2) Polymer bag materials:

• Utilization of polymeric microparticles as concrete filler;
• Polymer recycling into composite materials.

3) Thermoset resin:

• Utilization as sand substitute in concrete.

All products were characterised and optimised in terms of performance and cost to ensure their acceptance in the market, which is a prerequisite for the economic viability of the recycling processes developed. Overall, environmental, economic and technological benefits were expected from the establishment of the proposed recycling routes.