An important goal that abruptly, oddly enough, took flight due to his health situation; due to a brain tumor, he does not have long to live, according to medical prognosis. “My brain tumor was the impetus to establish Aethos. A foundation that aims to improve the recycling of materials from discarded aircraft.” He continues: “Twenty years ago, while studying at TU Delft, I had the unique opportunity to disassemble a Boeing 747 in practice. At that time, sustainability was hardly an issue; many parties were just doing whatever. I foresaw that aircraft would remain in use longer within Europe AND that the level of sustainability would be tightened by European airlines.” Initially, Derk-Jan founded AELS to offer aircraft disassembly and recycling as a service model. “Later, we started purchasing aircraft ourselves and then selling the parts.” At present, AELS primarily purchases slightly younger, discarded aircraft. “The demand for parts with this category of aircraft is greater than with the really old aircraft. These slightly younger aircraft are passenger aircraft 10-15 years old.”
Approximately 800 aircraft reach the end of their lives every year
High value of parts
Worldwide, there are about 30,000 aircraft. This does not include military, business or smaller pleasure aircraft. About 800 aircraft come to the end of their lives every year. “During the corona period this number was even lower with an average of 500 discarded planes per year, while also flying much less. I continue to find this strange; the reason was probably that the book value was high and disposing of it would cause too much financial pain,” Derk-Jan says. “Meanwhile, we are seeing an increase in supply again. Many aircraft parts have a high value. Think for example of the engines, landing gear and the APU (auxiliary power unit), which is in the tail of the aircraft.” But cockpit instruments and specific parts are also in high demand. “Anything that moves and has a serial number is interesting because that does break down from time to time.”
Stringent safety requirements
The aircraft industry, of course, has particularly high safety requirements. “Every part that is reused must be checked and registered separately. In the case of LLPs (Life Limited Parts), such as the engine, the entire history must be known after which it is found ready for reuse again by a recertification company.” Before an aircraft is purchased, an analysis is made of all parts on board and their position in their life cycle. The possibility of reuse depends, among other things, on the age, service life and number of aircraft movements made. “All this affects the business case of the parts. Not everything can be predicted in advance. Sometimes you get surprised.”
Material recycling is a puzzle
The Aethos Foundation aims to build a bridge between the companies that take apart an aircraft and the experts with knowledge of recycling. “Compared to cars, the aircraft industry is further ahead in terms of reusing parts. This is due to the high value of aircraft parts. However, in terms of recycling the materials that remain, it lags behind. Many materials, such as plastics containing flame retardants, are currently not being recycled at all, if at all. Material recycling is a puzzle and the desire is to do better in the future. There is still sometimes some oversimplification about recycling aircraft materials. The foundation provides research funding and wants to serve as a springboard to share knowledge. We at Aethos are looking hard for people with recycling experience in the field of existing aircraft materials who can contribute to this,” concludes Derk-Jan.
Taking aircraft recycling further
Many European studies focus on the planes that will be built in the future. Before these are built, you are 10-20 years away and before they are recycled another 20-25 years. “We prefer to focus on the aircraft that were developed 40 years ago and that will soon come to the end of their life. We would like to broaden the discussion to high-quality recycling of materials from the existing aircraft types and look globally at possible solutions. Anyone who can contribute to this, I cordially invite them to contact the Aethos Foundation. Now I can still commit to this, but I don’t know how much longer… I like the fact that with the Aethos foundation a seed has been planted to take aircraft recycling further. When I’m gone, the team will continue this.”
More about Aethos
Aethos supports companies, organizations and individuals to improve recycling of materials from end-of-life aircraft. The foundation has ANBI status (Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling). This means that people and companies can make a financial contribution for tax purposes. The goal is to use innovative and sustainable ways to prevent the difficult-to-recycle materials from aircraft from having to be landfilled or recycled at a low value. For more information, check out the website.