Circular economy approaches for carbon fiber-reinforced polymers: recent advances in recycling, life cycle assessment, and high-value reuse

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Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are essential for lightweighting in aerospace, automotive, and renewable energy applications, yet their projected growth beyond 280,000 t per year by 2030 generates a mounting end-of-life waste challenge. This review evaluates sustainable CFRP recycling and closed-loop reuse based on peer-reviewed literature and publicly available technical, industrial, and project information available through 30 June 2026. Mild-chemical solvolysis, hybrid thermal-chemical processes, and emerging biological routes are assessed with respect to fiber recovery, mechanical-property retention, environmental performance, economic viability, and technology maturity. Optimized processes can recover fibers retaining high tensile properties while substantially reducing the environmental burdens of virgin carbon-fiber production. The review examines interfacial modification, fiber alignment, recyclable and cleavable matrix systems, and their roles in enabling higher-value reuse across aerospace, automotive, renewable-energy, marine, and multifunctional applications. Particular attention is given to differences in feedstock characteristics, fiber grade, process conditions, system boundaries, economic assumptions, and technology-readiness assessments, which can strongly influence reported performance. Persistent barriers associated with heterogeneous waste streams, large-tow fibers, collection logistics, process scale-up, standardization, certification, and environmental trade-offs are identified. Laboratory evidence, pilot-scale demonstrations, commercial deployment, announced capacity, and forward-looking projections are explicitly distinguished. Future reclaimed-fiber adoption is discussed through scenario-based projections rather than a single deterministic forecast. An operational decision framework is proposed that links waste characteristics, matrix chemistry, recycling-route selection, recovered-fiber quality, reprocessing strategy, application requirements, and lifecycle and economic considerations, thereby supporting the transition toward more circular CFRP systems.