Ever wondered what happens to airplanes after they take their last trip to the hangar? According to the BBC, this question is on the minds of the bigwigs in the aviation industry, as the first generation of jumbo jets that precipitated the air travel boom of the 70s and beyond, is now due for retirement. The average jet has a life span of 30 years, and currently, the scrapping of planes is not covered by End of Life Vehicles Regulations that pass the cost of dismantling cars onto the manufacturers. With 8,000 aircraft due for retirement in the next 10 years, however, this is likely to change. Boeing, in a preemptive strike against legislation, and one that’s surprisingly good for the environment, has set up the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (Afra) to handle the recycling and repurposing of plane components. Working parts are sold for reuse, metals are stripped out and recycled, and for other components, such as the carbon fiber that now constitutes as much as 50% of some planes, research is being conducted into the best methods of disposing of them. Boeing has developed a method of recycling carbon fiber that has such a high-quality end product, it can go right back into plane construction. Always competitive, Airbus has set up its own recycling research initiative – Pamela (Process for Advanced Management of End of Life Aircraft) – backed by 3.2 million euros of investment. Nice to see what can happen when industry realizes that environmentally sound practices are also good business sense, no?
(via Treehugger)