Improving Carbon Fiber Recycling Image Credit: TLaoPhotography/shutterstock.com Carbon fiber reinforced polymers are used across a diverse range of applications in the engineering and building fields. New research aims to make these materials even more useful by making them reusable. Increased concern for the environment and diminishing supplies of natural resources coupled with a burgeoning global population and increased urbanization has led to the need for a circular economy. This means an increasing demand for materials that can be reused multiple times. Unfortunately, even some recyclable materials can only be reused a limited number of times. Recycling can be a process with diminishing returns, with some substances losing physical strength and properties as diverse as rigidity and flexibility over multiple uses, making them considerably less functional.