Yesterday, Boeing smashed up an old 757 that had run its course, but what’s more fascinating about this King 5 report are its plans for the old pieces.

The Boeing demonstration is part of a larger recycling initiative for the aircraft manufacturer. After stripping this plane, dubbed the ecoDemonstrator 757, of any reusable parts, remaining pieces will be recycled into new aircraft and other usable items. Only 10 percent will go to landfills.

“Our goal is to get to the point where we’re taking nothing to landfill,” said Boeing’s director of environmental performance Jeanne Yu told King 5. “We’re finding ways to reuse it or make it go back to the earth more naturally.”

A Boeing representative told us via email that before meeting its end, the ecoDemonstrator completed a four-month test program, completing over 200 flight hours and 100 test flights to try out 15 technologies, including a “collaboration with NASA, where engineers tested an Active Flow Control system on the airplane’s rudder and bug-phobic coatings for repelling insects in flight.”

According to the King 5 report, about 20,000 aircraft will be retired in the next 20 years — and recycling parts will be a big part of that process.

Below, a few more photos from Boeing from the demolition:

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

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