“Wind farm recycling met with criticism”

The dismantling and recycling of hundreds or even thousands of old wind turbines is set to pose a “huge problem” for Germany’s waste management system, news agency dpa reports in an article also carried by WirtschaftsWoche. The turbines’ large rotor blades made of fibreglass or carbon composite materials are very difficult to recycle due to their high resin adhesive content. “We can’t separate them,” says Michael Schneider of recycling company REMONDIS. The company says 16,000 tonnes of this material will have to be disposed of annually by 2021. According to the article, researchers are looking into ways to separate the blades’ components, but it remains difficult to predict the costs to be shouldered by wind farm operators.

Read the article in German here.