Issue Catalytic conversion for retiring aircraft fleets

Summary

The aerospace sector faces a growing wave of aircraft that will need to be dismantled and recycled. There are roughly 35,550 commercial planes worldwide, and about 15% of them are in storage and likely candidates for recycling. A shortage of new aircraft, expected to last until 2034, is keeping older models flying, but many will still reach the end of service within a decade. Over the next 20 years more than 13,000 commercial, military and private aircraft, 44% of the global fleet, are set to retire from desert storage yards. Dubai Future Foundation points to catalytic conversion, a low-temperature chemical process that breaks plastics and composites into reusable hydrocarbons without harmful emissions, neutralises heavy metals, pays back within one to two years and could cut hazardous waste by up to five times.