One of the requirements for LEEDS certification of buildings involves establishing a plan for what's done with their materials when they're razed. With all the recent hoopla about "green" airplanes, I'm wondering how LEEDS certifiable our homebuilts are. Since they all use the same engines, wheels & brakes, instruments, wiring, & avionics, I won't be including them in my disertation. We'll focus on airframes for now

All aluminum: definitely, especially if it was never painted. When we decide our plane's number is up, we take it apart, separating the steel fittings and hardware from the aluminum and scrap it. The only thing that will end up in the trash would be the upholstery, and maybe the canopy.

Tube & fabric: probably. The steel tube can be scrapped along with all the steel fittings and hardware. Any aluminum in the wings can be scrapped, too, and any wood can be chipped into mulch, once all the fabric or fiberglass have been peeled off it. But you'll end up with a sizable pile of fabric and maybe some fiberglass, the upholstery, and maybe the canopy. Is there a way to recycle doped Dacron polyester?

All wood: probably. Scrap all the metal fittings and hardware and chip/mulch the wood structure. The trash pile would be comparable to the tube and fabric plane's pile, since most are fabric or glass covered.

Composite: unlikely. Can composites (carbon fiber/aramids/glass/resins/foams) be ground down and recycled, maybe mixed into asphalt, like tires? The metal fittings and hardware can be scrapped, but what about the airframe? If anyone knows of a composite recycling process, please inform us so we'll be assured that those sleek, "green" planes, truly are "green."

Soft landings!