Gees Recycling: traceability of products made from fibre-reinforced composites
Since the early 1960s, fibreglass has been produced and used to a huge extent in various industrial sectors owing to its low production costs. The problem associated with these products is how to dispose of them: there is still no effective disposal system available.
Gees Recycling was one of the first companies in Europe to invest in technologies and plants for recycling fibre-reinforced thermosetting, plastic composites and rigid foams. Today, with its patented recovery process, Gees has acquired know-how in carbon-negative recycled material which meets both the growing demand for green materials and the objectives of the European Green Deal.
Gees' Retracking project has taken up the challenge of developing a competitive management model which complies with European regulations on recycling fibre-reinforced composite (FRC) waste.
This project:
- recycles, analyses, produces, identifies and tracks this secondary raw material, and
- paves the way for a transition to a circular economy.
The Retracking project has developed:
- a technological infrastructure which, by inserting a RFID tag, makes it possible to track FRC products, and
- a cloud platform for managing and monitoring information relating to the various phases of recycling and transformation.
A pilot project has tested a new circular economy model to ensure:
- effective recovery management
- treatment of FRC waste, and
- transformation of this waste into a secondary raw material that can be used to manufacture new products that are 100% recyclable.
The technologies developed in the project make it possible to:
- monitor new products made from recycled material, and
- enable reverse logistics.