WIRreFa | WIR! recyceln Fasern

WIR! Recycling fibres

We live in an age in which carbon or carbon and glass technical fibres are used in many areas of our lives. For example, glasses frames, tennis racquets, bikes, cars, aircraft, wind turbines or buildings are often made completely, or at least partly, from fibrous compounds.

This leads to local, regional and ultimately global challenges, because substituting metals by fibre composites produces fibrous waste materials. These high-quality secondary resources – unlike conventional metals – have not yet become an established part of a closed material life cycle. By setting up an alliance for the circular resource management of fibre composites, the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region is now addressing these problems.

By closing the currently open material life cycles, the project has set itself the goal of boosting the region's ability to innovate and creating prospects for further growth and employment. The innovation of recyclable fibre composite is the cornerstone for a sustainable, structural change in the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region. By developing the regional strengths even further, the alliance will act as a catalyst to trigger this very important change. It hopes to not only optimise the materials, the recording and concentration of waste streams, their sorted collection and processing, the development of new products and training concepts but also, and in particular, create a sense of identity with this key issue for the future in the region.

The alliance will help to:

• network those institutions involved in the circular value chain for fibre composites that are anchored in the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region by 2021,
• plan initial, specific circular value chains in the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region by 2023,
• establish initial, specific circular value chains in the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region and create new jobs by 2025,
• build up trust in, acceptance of and enthusiasm for the feasibility of circular value creation with fibre composites amongst all stakeholders both within and outside the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region parallel to the project, and
• provide strong stimuli for further research and development services both within and outside the "Saxon Elbe Valley" region, and communicate publicly know-how and successes parallel to the project.

WIR!reFa is being funded through the "WIR! - Change through innovation in the region" program from the "Innovation & structural change" family of programs of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

More information can be found on the project’s own website.

Contact person:

C³ – Carbon Concrete Composite e. V.

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Minar

Ammonstraße 72

01067 Dresden

+49 351 48 45 67 19

s.minar@carbon-concrete.org