Discussion
1/n
Digging into ‘recycling’.
In this article about decommissioning a 1995 South Lanarkshire wind farm I learn that
“Hagshaw’s 26 old turbines were designated for recycling or reuse, with Northern Ireland-based company Plaswire using specialised techniques to recycle the decommissioned wind turbine blades. Plaswire’s methodology shreds the blades and mixes the composite material with recycled waste plastics to create a durable material called RX Polymer…
2/n
…“[RX Polymer] is used to replace traditional building materials like concrete, timber and virgin plastics across a wide range of applications including site fencings, marker posts or drainage components.”
It seems to me that what we have here is a one-time source of hydrocarbons that have been used to create an ‘advanced’ composite material for power generation that is subsequently only fit for very low grade construction…
@urlyman yes, the polymers in the turbine blades are thermoset materials, they are crosslinked molecules and bonded to the fiberglass. Incredibly strong but still flexible. But they can't be melted or dissolved for re-use, or otherwise be re-shaped. So their approach is to grind and use it as a cheap filler.
The other options I have seen in the US is to grind and use as fuel in cement manufacturing or just landfill them.
All not ideal, the turbine life should be extended as much as possible
3/n
…Presumably the plastics are still present but are now in a context where they can slowly leach into the water table and then into us in an un-manageable way.
This is a pattern of pushing resources that are non-renewable on human timescales through extremely high energy processes fuelled by fossil fuels, for use as intended for, say, 3 decades, until they subsequently end up as much lower grade materials with a composition that is never going to be economic to recycle again…
4/n
…That such materials are not going straight into landfill or, much worse, into an incinerator spewing emissions, seems like a win.
In the case of plastics, it’s complicated. It tends towards a process of dissipating plastics into less-controlled environments. So it might be argued that it is mostly a process of can kicking to future generations.
For metals, the prospects are better but follow the same pattern of degraded usability, albeit with a lower gradient
Probably better melting it all down and making sea walling? 4 meters (12' high)?
@urlyman these are often called green energy or environmentaly friendly energy. But I think of it as less red energy or least environmentally damaging energy. Compared with CO2, coal ashes or nitrous oxide and dust from burning gas.
But unfortunately our energy hunger is not diminishing, we use more and more. And even with the less damaging stuff, the total damage is rising, CO2 is still going up. Less than ideal ...
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