3 ms·

Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills (2020)

13 points by lohfu 5y ago

toomuchtodo 5y ago
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-turbine-blade-recycling-program-with-veolia/591869/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-... (December 2020: GE announces first US wind turbine blade recycling program with Veolia) https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wind-power-waste-vestas-unveils-blade-recycling-technology-2021-05-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wi... (May 2021: End of wind power waste? Vestas unveils blade recycling technology)
- rad_gruchalski 5y ago
  > Using the new technology the glass or carbon fibre is separated from the resin and then chemicals further separate the resin into base materials, that are "similar to virgin materials" that can then be used for construction of new blades. Vestas said. What are those chemicals and what happens to them after they are used?
  - Valgrim 5y ago
    Probably some agressive solvents (MIBK comes to mind).
AStrangeMorrow 5y ago
Seems like the link is not correct (404) It is: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfillsq https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb... Should probably be: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb... One little "q" to many at the end of the url
- lohfu 5y ago
  well that's a bummer. i can't update the URL and remove the "q", no matter how little it is
vfclists 5y ago
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb...
reader_x 5y ago
Surely they can be repurposed? I’m thinking something architectural, like half-buried on the diagonal to create shade; Or handrails on a pedestrian bridge.
nine_k 5y ago
Do we have so many of them that we are running out of dumping grounds? Are they made of rare, hard-to-obtain stuff? Are they toxic or otherwise dangerous? I suppose all the answers to the above questions are negative. If so, let them pile up. We will recycle them as we learn an economical way to do that. (For hundreds of millions of years, mollusks did not recycle their calcite shells. It had major ecological and even geological consequences. Now we have literal mountains of them. Has even it made Earth a worse place? Some old blades are nothing in comparison.)
- jefurii 5y ago
  They're made of carbon fiber right? You could think of it as a very slow form of carbon capture.
vfclists 5y ago
Are these the only green technology items that will prove hard to recycle or is this the tip of the iceberg? What of solar panels, or batteries for instance? The Planet Of The Humans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE has a pessimistic view on the current technologies.
- Arnt 5y ago
  I sort of read that area. It seems to be a trait of modern materials, which are often new and exciting composites that pose new and exciting challenges when they have to be taken apart for recycling. New wind turbines use modern composites not because they're green, but because they're new. If you want a longer lighter blade for your wind turbine you use the latest strongest composite. If you want a thinner lighter doodah you do the same kind of thing, independent of whether that doodah has a greenish tinge or not.
stevespang 5y ago
These are just epoxy and fiberglass - - just like boat hulls in the oceans for decades . . . Could be laid side by side to make platforms to build houses off hillsides, a zillion uses I bet.

13 points by lohfu 5y ago

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-turbine-blade-recycling-program-with-veolia/591869/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-... (December 2020: GE announces first US wind turbine blade recycling program with Veolia) https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wind-power-waste-vestas-unveils-blade-recycling-technology-2021-05-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wi... (May 2021: End of wind power waste? Vestas unveils blade recycling technology)

rad_gruchalski 5y ago
> Using the new technology the glass or carbon fibre is separated from the resin and then chemicals further separate the resin into base materials, that are "similar to virgin materials" that can then be used for construction of new blades. Vestas said. What are those chemicals and what happens to them after they are used?
- Valgrim 5y ago
  Probably some agressive solvents (MIBK comes to mind).

AStrangeMorrow 5y ago

Seems like the link is not correct (404) It is: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfillsq https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb... Should probably be: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb... One little "q" to many at the end of the url

lohfu 5y ago
well that's a bummer. i can't update the URL and remove the "q", no matter how little it is

vfclists 5y ago

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb...

reader_x 5y ago

Surely they can be repurposed? I’m thinking something architectural, like half-buried on the diagonal to create shade; Or handrails on a pedestrian bridge.

nine_k 5y ago

Do we have so many of them that we are running out of dumping grounds? Are they made of rare, hard-to-obtain stuff? Are they toxic or otherwise dangerous? I suppose all the answers to the above questions are negative. If so, let them pile up. We will recycle them as we learn an economical way to do that. (For hundreds of millions of years, mollusks did not recycle their calcite shells. It had major ecological and even geological consequences. Now we have literal mountains of them. Has even it made Earth a worse place? Some old blades are nothing in comparison.)

jefurii 5y ago
They're made of carbon fiber right? You could think of it as a very slow form of carbon capture.

vfclists 5y ago

Are these the only green technology items that will prove hard to recycle or is this the tip of the iceberg? What of solar panels, or batteries for instance? The Planet Of The Humans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE has a pessimistic view on the current technologies.

Arnt 5y ago
I sort of read that area. It seems to be a trait of modern materials, which are often new and exciting composites that pose new and exciting challenges when they have to be taken apart for recycling. New wind turbines use modern composites not because they're green, but because they're new. If you want a longer lighter blade for your wind turbine you use the latest strongest composite. If you want a thinner lighter doodah you do the same kind of thing, independent of whether that doodah has a greenish tinge or not.

stevespang 5y ago

These are just epoxy and fiberglass - - just like boat hulls in the oceans for decades . . . Could be laid side by side to make platforms to build houses off hillsides, a zillion uses I bet.