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Energy

This article was updated to say that the 43 million tons of waste is a total amount of waste produced by 2050.

The speed by which wind farms are being constructed across the U.S. is going faster than a spring wind in Casper. In about 20 years, the wind turbines put into operation today will be nearing the end of their lifespan. The ones built 20 years ago are nearing it now. 
Since the blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem.  
According to a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Waste Management, the world’s wind industry will be producing 43 million tons of blade waste by 2050, and up to 800,000 tons annually.  
That&#x2019;s the equivalent weight of 215,000 locomotives. The U.S. and Europe will account for 41% of that.  
The size and weight of the blades vary, but the average length is around 120 feet and they weigh around five tons. Some of the largest can be as long as a football field and weigh 20 tons.  
Currently, there are no scalable, cost-effective technologies to recycle the blades, and most of them are going to landfills.  
Wind turbine manufacturers are looking at ways to make the blades more recyclable, and some recyclers are looking at ways to reuse the blades in hopes of keeping them out of landfills.  
To The Dump 
In 2019, the Casper Landfill accepted about 1,500 wind turbine blades for disposal. The photos of bulldozers pushing dirt over the chopped up blades were shared widely on social media.  
Mike Bratvold, special waste supervisor with the City of Casper, told Cowboy State Daily the landfill isn&#x2019;t currently taking any blades.  
&#x201C;We have rate codes and everything so that we&#x2019;re capable of taking blades, but we don&#x2019;t currently have any projects that are bringing us blades,&#x201D; Bratvold said.  
Bratvold said the blades don&#x2019;t have any leaching potential so they&#x2019;re not put inside the lined landfill pits where municipal solid waste goes. They&#x2019;re more like construction and demolition waste.  
Kieth Guille, outreach and public information officer for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, told Cowboy State Daily there are regulations governing some types of construction and demolition waste, such as materials containing asbestos, but generally blades can be disposed of at landfills that are permitted for construction and demolition waste.  
&#x201C;At the end of the day, it&#x2019;s up to the facility whether or not they want to take that,&#x201D; Guille said.  <h2>The Matrix </h2>Blades are made to be durable, as they&#x2019;re spinning for two decades in inclement weather conditions. The way they&#x2019;re manufactured to last that long also makes them hard to recycle.  
Jonathan Naugton, University of Wyoming professor of mechanical engineering and Director of the Wind Energy Research Center, told Cowboy State Daily the composites contain various fibers and a resin that bonds all those fibers together into a solid matrix.  
Naughton said research continues to find ways to make them more recyclable, and some manufacturers have announced that they have developed fully recyclable blades. It could be a while before those are deployed across all new turbines, Naughton said.  
&#x201C;We recycle a lot of the rest of the turbine — the steel in the turbine, the copper — all those kinds of things are infinitely recyclable. The blades are the last remaining piece we have to get better at,&#x201D; Naughton said.  
Mike Mazur, spokesperson for NextEra Energy Resources, which operates the Cedar Springs and Roundhouse wind farms in Wyoming, said that almost all the components in their turbines are recyclable. When the turbines are decommissioned, Mazur said, they work with turbine manufacturers to separate components and recycle the pieces. They also donate parts to wind technician training programs across the country.
&#x201C;At NextEra Energy Resources, we aim to be good stewards of the environment, both in how we generate clean energy and how we dispose of our generation facilities at the end of their useful lives,&#x201D; Mazur said.<h2>Repurposed Blades </h2>Even though blades can&#x2019;t be broken down to create new materials like we can with an aluminum can or some plastics, there are ways to repurpose the blades and the materials they&#x2019;re made of. 
In Denmark, old blades are being used to make bike shelters.  
Don Sylvester, CFO for Texas-based Xproducts U.S. LLC, is looking at ways of using ground-up blades in paving materials.
Sylvester told Cowboy State Daily there are 680,000 miles of roads in Texas. He said the state, as part of a program to encourage recycling, will pay 15% more for recycled paving material than what it pays for new stuff.The company is working through the process to get state approval for its paving material, and the company is looking to partner with a university.  
Sylvester declined to say which one as the contract is still being negotiated, but he said it&#x2019;s looking promising.  
&#x201C;They&#x2019;re really excited about this,&#x201D; Sylvester said.
Xproducts U.S. is also looking at using the old blades for concrete barriers on roadways.  
&#x201C;It just needs to have a little bit of weight. Instead of making new concrete for those things, you could just turn a lot of waste into those types of products,&#x201D; Sylvester said.  <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="SAVING WIND TURBINE BLADES by Chris Navarro" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8uo0wefpwZ8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>Sculptures 
Chris Navarro, a Casper artist, is trying to repurpose blades for public sculptures. He&#x2019;s currently working with a wind turbine company to get the blades shipped from Sidney, Nebraska.  
&#x201C;We&#x2019;re trying to get a bid to get the blades cut to the specifications we want and get them shipped to Casper. That&#x2019;s my next hurdle,&#x201D; Navarro told Cowboy State Daily.  
He&#x2019;s been working on the project for nearly three years. He said it&#x2019;s a 180-degree turn from what he&#x2019;s been doing as an artist, from representational monumental bronze sculptures to large, abstract structures made from fiberglass.  
&#x201C;It got a hold of me and won&#x2019;t let go, so I&#x2019;m going to follow it,&#x201D; Navarro said.  
He currently has a cutting order for about 45 blades, which won&#x2019;t make much of a dent in the amount of waste the blades will be generating in the coming years. But Navarro said when he saw the photos of the blades being disposed of in the Casper Landfill, he wanted to find a way to help address the problem through his art.  
Navarro said Platte River Trails Trust raised $40,000 to help him build Wind Cathedral at the head of the Platte River trail system.  
Working On It 
Naughton said research into the blade recycling problem has been going on actively for at least a decade now. It&#x2019;s a problem the industry is aware of. Naughton was at a wind energy meeting on March 1, and the presentation included 2019 photos of the blade dump in Casper.  
&#x201C;Is this a problem, and are we working on it? Yes. Is it one that&#x2019;s threatening the health and safety of anybody? No,&#x201D; Naughton said.  
He said it&#x2019;s likely that within the next decade the fully recyclable blades will be deployed on all new turbines.  
&#x201C;It doesn&#x2019;t mean that the existing turbine blades can&#x2019;t be recycled. There&#x2019;s just a limited number of uses,&#x201D; Naughton said.  
He points out that the blades are made of the same kinds of materials as boat hulls.
&#x201C;Nobody gets upset when there&#x2019;s a boat sitting in the dump,&#x201D; Naughton said.

Windmill Blades 3 1 23 scaled

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>🚧 By 2050, Used Wind Turbine Blades Will Exceed 43 Million Tons Of Waste | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Because wind turbine blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem. By 2050, there will be 43 million tons of blade waste produced — the equivalent of 215,000 locomotives.

By 2050, Used Wind Turbine Blades Will Exceed 43 Million Tons Of Waste

Bill Sniffin

Guest Columnists

By Bill Sniffin, publisher emeritus
We have all seen this Wyoming guy.
He doesn&#x2019;t look rich.
But if you examine his life and measure his level of happiness, there is a compelling argument he could very well be the richest man in the world.
This is a man who loves the outdoors. He loves to hunt and fish. He loves to explore. He just happens to have a few motorized off-road vehicles around (his wife calls them &#x201C;toys&#x201D;), which are not necessarily new, but he keeps them in good repair. He loves tinkering on them.
This rich man lives in Casper or Sheridan or Worland or Cheyenne or Laramie or Rock Springs or Evanston or Riverton or any other Wyoming city or town. He gets up early each morning to greet the day with a big smile because he is in total control of his universe.
The day starts off with coffee with his buddies. They meet every morning, rain or shine, and spend an hour telling tall tales to each other and occasional off-color jokes.
Let&#x2019;s call this guy Joe. With all due respect to the University of Wyoming, we might even call him Cowboy Joe because he is a big fan of UW and is rarely seen without brown or gold apparel that reads WYOMING or COWBOYS.
Joe does odd jobs and is in control of his own schedule. His wife has a good steady job with good benefits and good retirement. They are frugal and have saved up a little money. They enjoy Wyoming&#x2019;s outdoor experiences together.
It is well-known that Joe married &#x201C;up,&#x201D; which means he found himself an ideal life partner. People say his wife should not put up with all Joe&#x2019;s hobbies, but she accepts them with a smile, because she likes them, too. They are active in their church and people can count on them to help during times of need. They are there for others at such times.
These folks like Joe are among the richest people in the world&#x2019;s history.
Someone like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or some Arab sheik may think his life is better than Joe&#x2019;s, but do not try to convince Joe of this.  He would not trade his place on the planet with any of them.
He and his wife encouraged their kids to study hard and qualify for scholarships because extra money was hard to find. The kids qualified and they also worked during their years at UW. They graduated almost debt-free. 
Joe and his wife taught their kids to be thrifty and to appreciate the finer things in life, such as the joys available in Wyoming&#x2019;s great outdoors.
Joe and his wife are the best grandparents in the world. They take the grandchildren fishing, hunting, and camping. They have lots of time to spend with them and are never in a hurry. They listen to the grandkids&#x2019; problems because often the kids&#x2019; parents are too busy trying to make a living to do so.
At some point, one of Joe&#x2019;s kids will lecture the old man about how if he had worked an extra job or invested in the stock market, he probably would have ended up rich. And when he turned 70, he would have time to do all the fishing and hunting he might want to do. 
Joe will look at him and shrug. You can almost tell that he is thinking &#x201C;It&#x2019;s time to go fishing.&#x201D;
The Cowboy Joe described here is characteristic of a lot of people I know in Wyoming. I wish that I could have been more like him. In business, my wife Nancy and I have tried to get it all done but I missed out on a lot because of pressures associated with running and growing several businesses. I would have liked to have spent more time hunting, fishing, and camping.
Perhaps the closest I ever came to the perfect life was when I aspired to be a newspaper publisher at a young age. I made it at age 24 here in Lander, which was sort of incredible.
A friend back in those days invited Nancy and me to dinner where a third man showed up and gave us a pitch about how we could make all this extra money with a multi-level marketing sales scheme. I think it was Amway.
&#x201C;Just think, Bill,&#x201D; the man exclaimed. &#x201C;If you make all this extra money, you can be whatever you ever wanted to be!&#x201D;
My answer to him was: &#x201C;Sorry, but I am what I always wanted to be.&#x201D;
Now that is what Joe would have answered had he been asked that question.

Sniffin 1

<title>🚧 Bill Sniffin: The Richest Man In The World Lives Here In The Cowboy State | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bill Sniffin writes about the Richest Man in the World: It is well-known that Joe married up, which means he found himself an ideal wife. People say his wife should not put up with all of Joes hobbies, but she accepts them with a smile, because she likes them, too.

Bill Sniffin: The Richest Man In The World Lives Here In The Cowboy State

<title>🚧 One More For The Road | Cowboy State Daily</title>