13 - Recycling and reusing of aircraft

Abstract

Aircraft recycling has become a new challenge since around 12,000 aircrafts that are in service will be retiring in the next 20years. Recently, the end-of-service life for aging aircrafts and related parts has become a vital subject in recycling industries worldwide. Therefore, reclaiming retired aircrafts in an environmentally friendly way and at the same time retaining some of the value becomes an obvious need. The aviation industry is looking at two parallel goals: (1) a comprehensive recycling process to deal with current aircrafts and (2) a detailed and holistic design to deal with the retired aircrafts. Recycling aircrafts in an environmentally friendly way and using aircraft components in various applications will reduce natural resources depletion and the number of landfills. Compared to the production of virgin materials, recycling aircraft will reduce air, water, and soil contaminations, as well as reduce huge energy usage and thus save energy. Recycling mainly produces valuable metals and alloys with a high percentage of aluminum and other alloys. Therefore, identification of cost-effective recycling of aircraft components containing precious metals and alloys is the main feature of recycling. This chapter outlines the steps taken toward the initiation of recycling establishments to recover an entire aircraft structure and most of the aircraft parts. Both the major aircraft manufacturers (Boeing Co. and Airbus) have individually joined technology firms, demolition companies, and other facilities to solve the challenge to completely recycle an aircraft and all the materials that are used in the composition of an aircraft.