Innovation: Supporting Composites Circularity with SUSTAINA Loop
Award Category: Unsurpassed Innovation, 2025 CAMX finalist
Company: Owens Corning
Objective: SUSTAINA® Loop by Owens Corning is a 100% circular glass fiber designed to increase the circularity of the composites industry. Made from reclaimed manufacturing scrap and end-of-life fiberglass, it offers identical performance to traditional glass fiber.
Results: This innovative product is used in automotive, wind energy, and construction sectors, providing drop-in compatibility with existing applications.
Impact: SUSTAINA® Loop’s advanced remelting technology ensures no loss in quality, making it a strong option for customers looking to increase the circularity of their finished products.
From the Expert: Paul Salach, Product Leader, Owens Corning: “We just started operating a recycling line directly at our plant that allows us to take both our own manufacturing scrap and our customers’ manufacturing scrap and remelt it in our furnace and produce up to 100% circular glass fiber. Our long-term vision is to be able to take not just scrap but also end-of-life composites, by working with a partner to separate out the glass fibers from the resins and then reintroduce those fibers directly back into our melter, providing true closed-loop circularity for composite products.”
“We believe it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also becoming more and more of a need, not just a want, from our customers. We really do see circularity as something that’s critical, and so on the glass fiber side, we believe now is the time to actually put our money where our mouth is and make investments into circular products.”
“We’re focused on transportation and the marine segment. We also see a number of use cases in infrastructure markets like rebar where you’re starting to get more and more demand for life cycle assessments. A third one would be on the data center side. A lot of the tech OEMs are starting to have to contend with the fact that their data centers are going to take on a lot of energy, and right now they’re doing whatever they can to counteract some of the more carbon intensive forms of energy they’re using to power their data centers. So, we’re seeing more interest in products that are circular and have a lower carbon footprint.”
Learn more: https://www.owenscorning.com/en/composites/sustaina