Performance and Sustainability Analysis of Recycled Automotive Carbon Fibre Composites for Sports Equipment Casings

The increasing use of carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) in the automotive industry has led to a rapid growth of production scrap and end-of-life composite waste, creating significant environmental and resource challenges. Although multiple recycling technologies for automotive CFRP have been developed, the lack of high-value downstream applications remains a key barrier to achieving a closed-loop circular economy. Sports equipment casings, which require lightweight, stiffness-dominated and impact-resistant materials rather than primary structural strength, represent a promising but underexplored reuse pathway for recycled carbon fibre composites. This study addresses the research questions of whether recycled automotive CFRP can meet the functional performance requirements of sports equipment casings and whether its adoption can deliver meaningful environmental benefits compared with virgin CFRP. The research objective is to evaluate the performance suitability and sustainability implications of recycled automotive carbon fibre composites for casing applications. A systematic secondary-data methodology is employed, synthesising published mechanical property data and life-cycle assessment (LCA) results from recent peer-reviewed studies. Mechanical feasibility is assessed using stiffness and strength retention ratios relative to virgin composites, while sustainability performance is evaluated using cumulative energy demand and global warming potential indicators under different material substitution scenarios. The results indicate that recycled CFRP typically retains more than 80% of the elastic modulus of virgin materials, with sufficient strength for non-primary casing applications, while achieving 35–45% reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The novelty of this study lies in its integrated, application-oriented analysis that links recycled automotive CFRP waste streams with sports equipment casings, providing a structured decision-support perspective for cross-sector reuse within a circular economy framework.