Derk-Jan van Heerden

🛫 Welcome to Aethos! 🌍 We're on a mission to improve materials recycling of aircraft that stopped flying. Our aim? To ensure every material of a retired aircraft finds a better path. ✈ Aircraft are being disassembled perfect. Components are often re-used on still flying aircraft. The components and materials that can't be re-used should be recycled. This is, however, more challenging. Materials used on aircraft are very specific for aviation. Also, it’s not a lot of material because aircraft are made to be light. Recycling is therefore often impossible. The worst solution is landfilling. There are, however, already a lot of ways materials are turned into energy or, even better, turned into a material that can be used to make something new. Most of the materials are used for other products outside aviation, this could even be called downcycling. Wouldn’t it be perfect if we could make aircraft components from material made from old aircraft component? This is happening in some areas, but can it be done better? The goal of this foundation is to improve the recycling of materials used in aircraft that reach end-of-life today. Our goal is to tackle the tough stuff—those unique aviation materials that are harder to recycle—and find innovative, sustainable ways to keep them out of landfills and downcycling. 🌱 Join us as we fly towards a sustainable future for aviation, one recycled wing at a time. Let's make the skies cleaner, together.