Every time I attend a composites show, I meet with people from multiple companies that specialize in recycling carbon fiber. The claim that it cannot or is not recycled is not accurate. It may be true that some manufacturers choose not recycle excess CF, but they have a choice to do otherwise.

Agreed.

But, that said, how many of the factories that made the carbon bike that I ride, the one that you ride, and the ones that other STers ride, how many of those factories actually do it?

From the info, it looks like none of 'em do it because, sadly, dumping is way way cheaper ...

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Yet another reason to love my custom Ti bike.

The same can be said of a lot of industries. A previous company I worked for the president told me a story about his time running an production outfit in Mexico. He hired a guy to haul some chemical waste off including taking care of proper disposal procedures and went with the lowest bidder. Later that day there was a huge traffic jam when he was trying to get back to his hotel. Some guy was dumping waste as he drove along the road and it backed up traffic for miles to clean it up. Turns out it was the same guy he hired to haul off their waste. He just drove off with his truck's drain tube open letting all that waste dump along wherever he drove (on purpose). His definition of properly of disposing it was different from what they expected. But you get what you pay for at the same time.

Goes to show you how some outfits don't care or are just shady.

Trek recycles.

It looks like Specialized is one of the good guys too:

https://www.specialized.com/...er-recycling-program

Look - the simple fact of living in a western democratic society above a certain economic and financial threshold, means we all have a high carbon foot-print. You can't get away from it. And that's just normal day-to-day living.

Ironically we demand ever cheaper and cheaper stuff (all kinds of stuff), and brands and manufactures keep delivering on this, by finding ever, cheaper and cheaper manufacturers in places/countries with less, and less regulation and care . . and guess what, they are shitting on the environment more.

All of the above is the dirty secret about carbon and global warming that no one ever wants to fully address. I ounce saw a study that for Canada to truly meet and exceed the Kyoto Accord carbon reduction and global warming numbers, it would cost EVERY house-hold in the country on average $3,000 - 4,000/year for 10+ years. If that action was ever imposed, it would plunge the country into a long and serious recession, and means some serious hard-ship for many! What politician is going to be brave/crazy enough to run on that kind of politican platform?

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

with the risk of not getting too political... there are plenty of politicians that run on that exact platform...the issue is like 99.9% of politicians they lie about the cost.

Off topic - Fleck in general, I agree with you. However, for those who choose, there is a way not to have a high carbon footprint despite being of means in a western democracy. It begins with tracking what you do to create your carbon footprint and reducing it. We went through a great program and even though we started with a low carbon footprint, we were able to massively reduce it. And the program is free:

http://www.resilientneighborhoods.org/

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2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3

there are plenty of politicians that run on that exact platform...the issue is like 99.9% of politicians they lie about the cost.


That's my point.

People being people, no one wants to say, yes to a $3,000 - $4,000/year extra cost to their living - or make the REALLY radical changes to their lifestyles and lively-hoods to make the changes. It's political suicide for a politician to do that. Even Green Party candidates are vague about all of this.

Even simple things are hard to get going in this area. Just a 10% reduction in meat consumption in North America would yield substantial reduction in carbon out-out. That's not about being a vegan - that's just eliminating a couple of meals a week that are meat based. Something like this a a huge win-win at a number of levels ( healthier, less $$ etc), but NO ONE is doing this. Well some are (we have), but meat consumption in North America continues to go UP!!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Luckily for all of us, this info above is factually incorrect.

Expert economists say that, if done correctly, huge (but initially incremental) reductions in carbon pollution are not only possible, but that such carbon pollution reductions would actually SAVE the economy money. Don't believe this? Well, don't listen to me, listen to economists that know their sh*t (economists from MIT). It's truly eye-opening:

(stream audio episode here ... )
The One-Page Plan To Fix Global Warming (PlanetMoney podcast)
https://www.npr.org/...o-fix-global-warming

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Luckily for all of us, this info above is factually incorrect.

So why is the shift to a truly green, carbon neutral economy so hard.

Why are we getting so much resistance?

Why are certain Carbon producing numbers continuing to rise? ( I think in Canada or per-capita number continues to go up!)

I don't completely disagree with you!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

The short answer:

We are our own worst enemies.

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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We are our own worst enemies.


True - Locally here in Ontario, the Liberal government that has been in power now for 10+ years has vowed to get the province off of dirty power (coal) and also massively invested in green renewable power - solar and wind. This has been quite costly. We are all paying for this via the highest electricity prices in North America. For context - The Ontario economy is surpassed by only a few U.S. States.

The Liberals are doing the right thing. We are having Provincial Election this year. The Liberal government, based on where they are at in the Poll stands little chance of people elected. The Conservatives, will likely get in, and of course they are selling the smoke-dream of being able to render all of this green-tech change, with no added costs!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Listen to the episode.

It is not magic, it is crazy simple.
And it would work anywhere it is applied.

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
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Look at the dirty little secret hiding in your wetsuit... one of the worst cancer clusters in the US

https://theintercept.com/...llnesses-and-deaths/

As far a I know, this is only partially true; in most cases you rely on the continuous fibers to provide strength under certain loads. When you start cutting sheets you are cutting the fiber so now your leftover pieces have shorter and random length fibers in them. That makes them not suitable for any application that requires a length of fiber longer than what you have in the leftover piece. So the solution is to chop it up into very small fiber pieces and use those for applications with only light loads but there are a lot less applications for that. These would have to be applications where the chopped fiber adds enough strength but it won't be anywhere near what you get from continuous fiber.

Boeing has a deal with a high end car company, Lamborghini or Ferrari i think, to recycle their leftover composites from the 787 into car body panels. It's no longer aerospace grade unidirectional material, but it works great for cars.

looks interesting, but link is dead ...

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Working on plastics components in automotive I can comment that aerospace carbon is being recycled and offered instead of glass reinforced nylon for example. The price per lb is still not there, but for applications where weight and stiffness are required it's an option.

Sure but the devil is in the details. By 'working great for cars' are you talking cup holders, fenders, bumpers, that sort of stuff, of the hood, doors, trunk, ...?

That would again be nylon with chopped glass being replaced by nylon with chopped fiber (or a different resin) - which is very different (inferior) in performance vs unidirectional prepreg. Hence, unlike recycled metals or glass they're not suitable for the same parts they were originally intended for.

Body panels. The outer shell of the car, hoods, doors and such. Probably nothing super structural though, because that would require layups