Coal polymer compositesCoal polymer composite are manufacturedCharacterization using waste coal produced during mining operations aiding to reduce the polluting effects of the waste coal in the environment as well as reducing the amount of polymer needed in the compositeComposite. While a promising material, the micromechanical damage mechanisms under loading have not yet been investigated resulting in a gap of knowledge surrounding the dominating failure modes of this material. The effect of coal type (bituminous and sub-bituminous) and quantity on the mechanical propertiesMechanical properties and damage mechanisms is investigated using Nondestructive Evaluation (NDENondestructive evaluation (NDE)) Methods. This work demonstrates the ability to implement in situ NDENondestructive evaluation (NDE) during loading allowing for observation of damage directly at the time and scale it occurs. NDENondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods used in this work include in situ Acoustic EmissionsAcoustic emissions (AE) and Digital Image CorrelationDigital Image Correlation (DIC) coupled with optical microscopy.