Sustainability of pultruded advanced composites

As with other construction materials, the sustainability of pultruded advanced composites has to be analysed with respect to the different phases of their life cycle  

With regard to the service life use, FRP pultruded composites are more environmentally friendly than most traditional materials they need very little maintenance and, as previously discussed, exhibit improved durability even in relatively harsh environments. Furthermore, when used in building applications, the low thermal conductivity of FRPs may be associated with potential energy savings (the Eyecatcher Building stands as an example of this advantage). 

Presently, the main limitation of FRP advanced composites, in terms of sustainability, arises at the end of the life cycle and has to do with the limited waste management possibilities, since thermosetting resins (by far the most commonly used for infrastracture applications), once polymerised, can no longer be reprocessed. This means that the most common option at the end of the service life is to process the FRP materials to granulates, which are then used as landhll material. 

The practical possibilities of reuse (which is a highly rated solution in the waste hierarchy) are very limited at the present time. This is because FRP materials are often made to order and are thus usually designed for a particular application, so they do not conform to standardised shapes or material properties. The reuse of FRP pultruded members, in particular, seems quite unlikely owing to the difficulties of recalculating the residual mechanical properties and of reliably assessing material degradation or creep effects (Conroy et ah, 2006). 

The main limitations are an insufficient throughput supply, the cost of the recyclates and the lack of developed markets (Pickering, 2006). 

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