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Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft

HOLLY PAGE, Christian Griffiths, Andrew Thomas Orcid Logo

Sustainability, Volume: 17, Issue: 19, Start page: 8556

Swansea University Authors: HOLLY PAGE, Christian Griffiths, Andrew Thomas Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/su17198556

Abstract

Aviation’s sustainability discourse often centres on flight emissions, but production and end-of-life phases also carry material, energy, and pollution impacts that are large enough to merit systematic intervention. With ~13,000 aircraft projected to retire over the next two decades—roughly 44% of t...

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Published in: Sustainability
ISSN: 2071-1050
Published: MDPI AG 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70568
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With ~13,000 aircraft projected to retire over the next two decades&#x2014;roughly 44% of the global fleet&#x2014;the sector must scale responsible dismantling and material recovery to avoid lost opportunities for meeting future sustainability goals and to harness economic value from secondary parts and recycled feedstocks. Embedding major sustainability and circular economy principles into aircraft design, operations, and retirement can reduce waste, conserve critical materials, and lower lifecycle emissions while contributing directly to multiple SDGs. Furthermore, when considering particular aircraft types, thousands of narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are due to reach their end of life over the next two decades. This research evaluates the economic and environmental feasibility of aluminium recycling from these aircraft, integrating material flow analysis, cost&#x2013;benefit modelling, and a lifecycle emissions assessment. An economic assessment framework is developed and applied, with the results showing that approximately 24.7 tonnes of aluminium can be recovered per aircraft, leading to emissions savings of over 338,000 kg of CO2e, a 95% reduction compared to primary aluminium production. However, scrap value alone cannot offset dismantling costs; the break-even scrap price is over USD 4200 per tonne. When additional revenue streams such as component resale and carbon credit incentives are incorporated, the model predicts a net profit of over USD 59,000 per aircraft. The scenario analysis confirms that aluminium recycling only becomes financially viable through multi-stream revenue models, supported by Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and carbon pricing. 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spelling 2025-10-03T12:30:21.5094993 v2 70568 2025-10-03 Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft 3bcce293136bcac0e0cb7b5c8dfca720 HOLLY PAGE HOLLY PAGE true false 84c202c256a2950fbc52314df6ec4914 Christian Griffiths Christian Griffiths true false 13d5ed33bce79c052f678401128e4ca1 0000-0002-1942-7050 Andrew Thomas Andrew Thomas true false 2025-10-03 Aviation’s sustainability discourse often centres on flight emissions, but production and end-of-life phases also carry material, energy, and pollution impacts that are large enough to merit systematic intervention. With ~13,000 aircraft projected to retire over the next two decades—roughly 44% of the global fleet—the sector must scale responsible dismantling and material recovery to avoid lost opportunities for meeting future sustainability goals and to harness economic value from secondary parts and recycled feedstocks. Embedding major sustainability and circular economy principles into aircraft design, operations, and retirement can reduce waste, conserve critical materials, and lower lifecycle emissions while contributing directly to multiple SDGs. Furthermore, when considering particular aircraft types, thousands of narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are due to reach their end of life over the next two decades. This research evaluates the economic and environmental feasibility of aluminium recycling from these aircraft, integrating material flow analysis, cost–benefit modelling, and a lifecycle emissions assessment. An economic assessment framework is developed and applied, with the results showing that approximately 24.7 tonnes of aluminium can be recovered per aircraft, leading to emissions savings of over 338,000 kg of CO2e, a 95% reduction compared to primary aluminium production. However, scrap value alone cannot offset dismantling costs; the break-even scrap price is over USD 4200 per tonne. When additional revenue streams such as component resale and carbon credit incentives are incorporated, the model predicts a net profit of over USD 59,000 per aircraft. The scenario analysis confirms that aluminium recycling only becomes financially viable through multi-stream revenue models, supported by Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and carbon pricing. While barriers remain, aluminium recovery is a strategic opportunity to align aviation with circular economy and decarbonisation goals. Journal Article Sustainability 17 19 8556 MDPI AG 2071-1050 environmental analysis; recycling; aircraft; circular economy; sustainability 24 9 2025 2025-09-24 10.3390/su17198556 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Other 2025-10-03T12:30:21.5094993 2025-10-03T12:22:34.7002514 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Aerospace Engineering HOLLY PAGE 1 Christian Griffiths 2 Andrew Thomas 0000-0002-1942-7050 3 70568__35235__3bde30b70552457eafadd18e1628eb1d.pdf 70568.VOR.pdf 2025-10-03T12:26:41.1602873 Output 605997 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
spellingShingle Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
HOLLY PAGE
Christian Griffiths
Andrew Thomas
title_short Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
title_full Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
title_fullStr Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
title_full_unstemmed Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
title_sort Economic and Environmental Analysis of Aluminium Recycling from Retired Commercial Aircraft
author_id_str_mv 3bcce293136bcac0e0cb7b5c8dfca720
84c202c256a2950fbc52314df6ec4914
13d5ed33bce79c052f678401128e4ca1
author_id_fullname_str_mv 3bcce293136bcac0e0cb7b5c8dfca720_***_HOLLY PAGE
84c202c256a2950fbc52314df6ec4914_***_Christian Griffiths
13d5ed33bce79c052f678401128e4ca1_***_Andrew Thomas
author HOLLY PAGE
Christian Griffiths
Andrew Thomas
author2 HOLLY PAGE
Christian Griffiths
Andrew Thomas
format Journal article
container_title Sustainability
container_volume 17
container_issue 19
container_start_page 8556
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2071-1050
doi_str_mv 10.3390/su17198556
publisher MDPI AG
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Aerospace Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, General and Mechanical Engineering - Aerospace Engineering
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description Aviation’s sustainability discourse often centres on flight emissions, but production and end-of-life phases also carry material, energy, and pollution impacts that are large enough to merit systematic intervention. With ~13,000 aircraft projected to retire over the next two decades—roughly 44% of the global fleet—the sector must scale responsible dismantling and material recovery to avoid lost opportunities for meeting future sustainability goals and to harness economic value from secondary parts and recycled feedstocks. Embedding major sustainability and circular economy principles into aircraft design, operations, and retirement can reduce waste, conserve critical materials, and lower lifecycle emissions while contributing directly to multiple SDGs. Furthermore, when considering particular aircraft types, thousands of narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are due to reach their end of life over the next two decades. This research evaluates the economic and environmental feasibility of aluminium recycling from these aircraft, integrating material flow analysis, cost–benefit modelling, and a lifecycle emissions assessment. An economic assessment framework is developed and applied, with the results showing that approximately 24.7 tonnes of aluminium can be recovered per aircraft, leading to emissions savings of over 338,000 kg of CO2e, a 95% reduction compared to primary aluminium production. However, scrap value alone cannot offset dismantling costs; the break-even scrap price is over USD 4200 per tonne. When additional revenue streams such as component resale and carbon credit incentives are incorporated, the model predicts a net profit of over USD 59,000 per aircraft. The scenario analysis confirms that aluminium recycling only becomes financially viable through multi-stream revenue models, supported by Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and carbon pricing. While barriers remain, aluminium recovery is a strategic opportunity to align aviation with circular economy and decarbonisation goals.
published_date 2025-09-24T15:42:46Z
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