Europe Attempts Ban On Carbon Fiber

European regulators have decided that carbon fiber should be on a shortlist of “hazardous materials” and are seeking to have it banned. While the industry will presumably petition the government against instituting any official restrictions, there’s always a chance the rule could come to pass — shaking up the global supply chain.

According to the Japanese Nikkei, the European Parliament amended a proposal to its “ End of Life Vehicles Directive” last month. Among the changes was an inclusion to ban the use of carbon fiber due to the fact that microscopic shavings can be produced whenever panels are destroyed or recycled.

The ELV Directive seeks to create a “circular” automotive sector in Europe by mandating specific recycling initiatives that are designed to “maximize the efficient use of resources and to protect the environment.” It includes rules mandating that 25 percent of the plastic used in new vehicles come from recycled sources, initiatives to recover more raw materials from scrapped vehicles, and expansion plans to incorporate buses, trucks, and motorcycles. But it also wants to place restrictions on the kind of materials that can be used, barring anything EU regulators think will be too hard to recycle or poses sufficient environmental concerns.

Considering how long carbon fiber has been around, it’s actually a little surprising that it made the list. It’s been in existence as a lighting filament since the 1860s. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that manufacturing technologies allowed the material to start being used for the aerospace industry. Decades later, new processes would allow the material to be adapted for automotive use. While the first applications were high-performance supercars, the material has gradually started making its way into mass-market vehicles.

This trend has continued as vehicles have grown ludicrously heavy in recent years. Carbon fiber and aluminum have become the preferred materials when structural strength is important but weight savings are a must — regardless of if the application is automobiles or airplanes.

The prospective ban will be discussed by the European Commission, European Parliament, and the European Council over the next couple of months. However, Nikkei reported that the ban likely wouldn’t go into effect until 2029 if approved. In the interim, lobbying efforts could convince the EU to change its mind on whether carbon fiber should be deemed hazardous under the ELV Directive. Similarly, other materials could end up making the list before the final rules are passed.

Initiatives like this are mildly infuriating because of the potentially massive implications they have on the market and the fact that there’s always a dozen other things to point to that should also qualify under the regulatory metrics being used to determine what’s unsafe. For example the raw materials found in car batteries — whether we’re discussing the kind that goes under the hood of combustion vehicles or reside below the floorboards of EVs — are effectively hazardous waste and need to be disposed of in a specific manner. The same is true of your oil or transmission fluids and there is a wealth of data suggesting that the microscopic particles found in brake dust could be more hazardous to breathe than diesel exhaust.

The only real distinction is that carbon fiber bodywork isn’t technically necessary for a vehicle to function properly. It’s more of a luxury designed to improve performance by reducing weight. Although that could be argued into a case for the material to be helping to improve efficiency in some instances. Thinking of it like that makes this a bit of a conundrum considering how regulators talk endlessly about needing to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

[Image: Brandon Woyshnis/Shutterstock; JoshBryan/Shutterstock; Aleksandr Kondratov/Shutterstock]

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