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Recycling carbon fiber is no longer a pipe dream

Nerd Alert Podcast

English - April 28, 2022 07:15 - 45 minutes - ★★★★★ - 346 ratings
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The topic of sustainability and carbon fiber has long been a black eye on the bike industry, but one company in Tennessee — called Carbon Fiber Recycling, of all things — is seemingly turning that around. Old broken frames? Random components? Scrap uncured pre-preg? It’s all good, according to CFR: just stick it all in its magic machine, and usable raw material comes out the other end.
Best of all, the process is supposedly quite economical for everyone involved, there’s almost no waste product produced, and the company has plans to ramp things up big-time. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t.

The topic of sustainability and carbon fiber has long been a black eye on the bike industry, but one company in Tennessee — called Carbon Fiber Recycling, of all things — is seemingly turning that around. Old broken frames? Random components? Scrap uncured pre-preg? It’s all good, according to CFR: just stick it all in its magic machine, and usable raw material comes out the other end.

Best of all, the process is supposedly quite economical for everyone involved, there’s almost no waste product produced, and the company has plans to ramp things up big-time. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t.