Fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials are increasingly used in many industrial applications, leading to an increase in the amount of waste that must be treated to avoid environmental problems. Currently, the scientific literature classifies existing recycling technologies into three macro-categories: mechanical, thermal, and chemical; however, none are identified as superior to the others. Therefore, scholars and companies struggle to understand where to focus their efforts. Patent analysis, by relying on quantitative data as a precursor to new technological developments, can contribute to fully grasping current applications of each recycling technology and provide insights about their future development perspectives. Based on these premises, this paper performs a patent technology roadmap to enhance knowledge about prior, current, and future use of the main recycling technologies. The results show that recycling macro-categories have different technology maturity levels and growth potentials. Specifically, mechanical recycling is the most mature, with the lowest growth potential, while thermal and chemical recycling are in their growth stage and present remarkable future opportunities. Moreover, the analysis depicts several perspectives for future development on recycling technologies applications within different industries and underline inter- and intra-category dependencies, thus providing valuable information for practitioners and both academic and non-academic backgrounds researchers interested in the topic.

Fibre-reinforced plastic composite materials are increasingly employed in several industries. This extensive use has resulted in a huge increase of generated waste that has to be managed without causing significant environmental issues. Recycling fibre-reinforced plastic composite materials in accordance with circular economy principles might be a way to overcome such problems. Thus, this paper aims to empirically analyse the existing scientific literature regarding recycling technologies for fibre-reinforced plastic composite materials. The main goal is to provide a holistic and comprehensive analysis of the topic, as well as research gaps and future directions following a rigorous and transparent approach. Overall, 201 articles were selected through a systematic approach and then analysed using a bibliometric analysis. Results show that this topic has been increasingly gaining momentum in recent years and that researchers have mostly carried out experimental studies on chemical and thermal recycling technologies for recovering carbon fibres. Lastly, this article provides an in-depth research agenda based on identified research gaps and an enhanced managerial grasp of this field of research.