Composights Blog

Making Thermoplastic Composite Recycling Work in the Real World: Inside Spiral RTC

Thermoplastic composites are often described as fully recyclable—but why has recycling remained limited in real industrial practice? This article takes an inside look at Spiral RTC, a company built specifically to close the gap between technical feasibility and economic reality. It explores why thermoplastic composite recycling has struggled to scale, how Spiral RTC’s independent, mechanically driven model works, and where recycled thermoplastic composites are already being used today—from injection-moulded industrial parts to additive manufacturing. A practical, market-focused view of what it takes to make thermoplastic composite recycling work in the real world.

Thermoplastic composites have long carried a powerful promise: they can be recycled. Unlike thermosets, their polymer matrices can be reheated, reshaped and reused. This ability to be recycled has been known for decades and is often cited as a major advantage of thermoplastic composite systems. Over the years, thermoplastic composites have gained wider use in aerospace, automotive, industrial, and consumer applications. By 2025, the global composites market has grown to over 17 million tons per year and is expected to reach nearly 20 million tons by 2030. As a result, a significant problem has emerged: more than 3 million tons of composite waste were produced in 2025 alone, according to Composights.As the use of thermoplastic composites has grown, so have expectations about their recyclability. However, recycling them has not yet become a standard practice in industry. Winand Kok, co-founder of Spiral RTC, notes, Everyone always says thermoplastic composites are 100% recyclable. And they are, it has been proven you can do it. But nobody s really doing it. The issue is no longer whether thermoplastic composites can be recycled, but why this proven technology has not yet become a widespread industrial reality.1. Why Thermoplastic Composite Recycling Never Made Business SenseIf thermoplastic composite recycling has not yet expanded meaningfully, it is not due to a lack of technical solutions. The main obstacle has always been economic. For most companies that generate thermoplastic composite waste, recycling does not fit with their current cost structures or business priorities.The main reason for this is volume fragmentation. Thermoplastic composite scrap comes from material suppliers, aerospace manufacturers, tier suppliers, and industrial processors, but each location typically produces small and irregular amounts. Even in the aerospace industry, where the material is highly valuable, the amount of scrap at a single facility is usually not enough to justify a dedicated recycling system. Winand Kok explains, The typical quantity of thermoplastic composite waste is relatively small for individual companies to recycle and make a business case. While recycling is technically feasible, the infrastructure required, the customers you need to find for the recycled material, and this whole investment cannot typically be justified. This fragmentation leads to a deadlock. Recycling needs capital equipment, logistics, material inspection, quality control, and downstream customers who are willing to use recycled materials. At the same time, virgin materials are easily available, and there are already established ways to dispose of them. Without a law requiring it or a clear financial benefit, it makes sense to delay taking action. As Kok notes, It s not yet a law that says you have to do it, and as a result, everybody says, It s too early. The juice is not worth the squeeze. The situation is further complicated by material variability. Thermoplastic composite waste is inherently inconsistent, differing in polymer type, fiber architecture, contamination level, and physical format. Even similar-looking waste streams can behave very differently during recycling. According to Hans Luinge, co-founder of Spiral RTC, Every company s waste is different and needs a different approach to get it into a controlled form. There s no single fixed model. This variability adds to both technical uncertainty and financial risk, which are factors that most organizations are not willing to take on by themselves. These dynamics create a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Recycling needs stable volumes and established applications to expand, but those volumes and uses are unlikely to happen without existing recycling infrastructure. As a result, adoption has been slow, not because recycling doesn't work, but because the market is missing dedicated intermediaries to bring together scattered volumes, handle initial risks, and link thermoplastic composite waste to practical applications. Spiral RTC is probably the only company explicitly structured around this role, operating independently between waste generators and downstream users rather than within a single supplier or OEM ecosystem.2. How SpiralRTC Came TogetherSpiral RTC was founded in 2022 by Winand Kok and Hans Luinge, who had both worked with thermoplastic composite materials in industry for years. During this time, they saw that thermoplastic scrap was a common result of manufacturing, coming in many forms and from many places. The founders decided on building a company that could handle materials as they actually existed. As Kok explains, You first have to deal with what is really there, different formats, different qualities, different quantities, before you can talk about scale. SpiralRTC was set up to do just that.Image 1: Spiral RTC s office facilities in the Netherlands, where the company coordinates their operationsThe company's business model is intentionally simple. Spiral RTC collects thermoplastic composite waste, turns it into controlled material forms, and supplies these materials for reuse through existing manufacturing channels. It doesn't design products or make finished parts. As Luinge puts it, We are not a parts producer. We are supplying material that others can process further. Being independent makes this model work. By operating outside of any single supplier or manufacturer's structure, Spiral RTC can work with many waste sources and many users at the same time. Kok describes this role simply: We are basically acting as a broker between waste streams and applications. Thermoplastic composite waste can vary a lot, and processing methods need to adapt. As Luinge notes, There is no fixed recipe. You adjust the process to the material you receive. Spiral RTC was designed to be flexible from the start.