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

[Elderberry]

Bloomberg By Chris Martin 2/5/2020

Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.

A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.

The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another.

“That’s the end of it for this winter,” said waste technician Michael Bratvold, watching a bulldozer bury them forever in sand. “We’ll get the rest when the weather breaks this spring.”

Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.

More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills?utm_campaign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews


Fragments of wind turbine blades await burial at the Casper Regional Landfill in Wyoming.

[Cyber Liberty]

If the blades have to be cut up to haul them away, then how did they get to the construction site in the first place,  when they were new?

[Elderberry]

If the blades have to be cut up to haul them away, then how did they get to the construction site in the first place,  when they were new?

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

[Cyber Liberty]

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

That's what I thought.  It would certainly be a lot cheaper and easier to cut them up.

[andy58-in-nh]

Rather than cut them up and bury them, I suggest we find a better use for these items.

For example: let's use them to build a wall.

[Axeslinger]

Rather than cut them up and bury them, I suggest we find a better use for these items.

For example: let's use them to build a wall.

I can hear the libtard heads exploding from here, just for the irony.

[catfish1957]

Rather than cut them up and bury them, I suggest we find a better use for these items.

For example: let's use them to build a wall.

Credible estimates indicate that somewhere between 250,000 - 750,000 birds are killed per year by these awful monstrosities in this country.  And about the same number of bats.

I made my first out-west road trip last year for the first time in a few decades.  Crying shame what these contrapations have done to the beautiful vistas and landscapes.  Another example of rampant enviro-whackos gone amok.

[Cyber Liberty]

Rather than cut them up and bury them, I suggest we find a better use for these items.

For example: let's use them to build a wall.

The big question I'd have about the wall...is the composite material of the blades be a good medium with which to build it?  Would it burn if doused with sufficient accelerator like gasoline?  I don't know.

[andy58-in-nh]

The big question I'd have about the wall...is the composite material of the blades be a good medium with which to build it?  Would it burn if doused with sufficient accelerator like gasoline?  I don't know.

Well, if it has to be cut with diamond-encrusted blades, I am thinking it is rather durable. Add reinforced concrete and steel and I think we've got some serious building material.

[Elderberry]

Texas manufacturing plant gives new life to old blades

https://www.chooseenergy.com/news/article/wind-turbine-blades-cause-issue-with-waste/

Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) is working to provide a solution for the growing issue of blade waste. With recycling and manufacturing plants in Sweetwater, TX, and Newton, IA, GFS claims that it “provides industrial fiberglass waste recycling services to industries worldwide.” In addition, GFS manufactures fibers, pellets, construction materials, and more from the materials recycled in its plants.

The manufacturing plant in Sweetwater, TX, currently produces manufacturing-grade pellets under the brand name EcoPoly Pellets. According to a GFS press release, they are “thermoplastic fiberglass pellets usable in injection mold and extrusion manufacturing processes.” The EcoPoly Pellets are made in part from recycled wind turbine blade material, giving new life to the blades that were previously viewed as unrecyclable.

In the press release, GFS states explains this recycled pellet “represents the company’s innovation in repurposing waste material (decommissioned wind turbine blades) into green manufactured products that are commercially viable.”

GFS also has plans to improve the productivity of its plant in Sweetwater, TX. Currently, the plant is capable of processing two to three tons per hour (approximately two to three blades per day). However, the company hopes this will increase to eight tons per hour by the end of 2019.

[roamer_1]

Texas manufacturing plant gives new life to old blades

https://www.chooseenergy.com/news/article/wind-turbine-blades-cause-issue-with-waste/

Just where I was going... They're composite fiberglass... grind em up and turn em into the next blades.
If nothing else, turn em into fiber strands and use em reinforcing concrete and such.

[darroll]

If the blades have to be cut up to haul them away, then how did they get to the construction site in the first place,  when they were new?

Good Question.

[Hoodat]

Rather than cut them up and bury them, I suggest we find a better use for these items.

For example: let's use them to build a wall.

That would be soooooo sweeeeet.  Liberals forcing green energy down our throats is what made building the wall possible.

[verga]

BKMK

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The tragic thing is most abandoned windmills that are no longer useful still stand on their construction site.

What is needed is to place a dismantling and disposal fee on every windmill turbine to handle its teardown costs just like the nuclear power companies are required to do.

Tacked onto the monthly bills sent to all the customers who want them.

[Snarknado]

The big question I'd have about the wall...is the composite material of the blades be a good medium with which to build it?  Would it burn if doused with sufficient accelerator like gasoline?  I don't know.

We'll just treat it with asbestos - kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

[darroll]

We'll just treat it with asbestos - kill 2 birds with 1 stone.