AIRPLANE RECYCLING

• More than 3500 airliners will reach their end-of-life between 2008 and 2025 at a rate of around 200 aircrafts per year.
• The aircrafts are the absolute sources of the valuable metal, ‘Aluminum.’
• Almost 80 percent of Aircraft parts are recyclable. Most of the fuselage and wings of jets such as Boeing 727 is made of Aluminium which can be sold as scrap.
• Once the engines, landing gear, avionics and components are removed from the aircraft, there is still value in the aluminium.
• This scrapped Aluminium will be later used to manufacture automobile parts including wheels and transmissions.
• Steel, found in the landing gear of planes like Boeing 707, is also relatively easy to recover.
• Recycling composite aircraft materials is trickier than working with raw metals.
• Composites using lightweight and durable carbon fiber are found more and more in newer aircraft, and make up half of each Boeing 787.
• Recycled carbon fiber is being tested for use in tires, paint, industrial injection molds, and sporting goods such as skateboards.
  
  

FACTS:

• According to Boeing, the largest manufacturer of jet airliners, about 7200 commercial planes including Boeing 737, 747 and Airbus A320, A340 models will be scrapped.
• Boeing, in 2006 co-founded the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, with an aim to expand the airplane recycling rate to 90 percent from about 60 percent today.
• The lifespan of most commercial airliners is said to be around 30 years. Most of the airliners used today were born by 1970s and now there is a jump in the number of planes beyond use. So aircraft recycling will reach its peak through the next decade.