Green energy, it’s so lovely and perfect,

@4meAndyou Fibreglass or carbon-fibre: not much difference as the bonding-agent is still synthetic resin, made mainly from petroleum derivatives.

There is no evidence so far that burying these will be harmful; but plenty of accummulated experience from many decades of use that if left open to the weather, especially strong sunlight, Glass-Reinforced Resin (to use the formal name) will degrade, particularly if damaged. It disintegrates very slowly to tiny particles of resin and short strands of glass.

The problem is that their breakdown when buried would be so gradual no-one will know for many decades to come; and it will also depend much on ground conditions.


So what to do ith it?

None of the synthetic-resin materials, in bulk form, as adhesives or in composites like fibre-glass, are salvageable. They form the Thermo-setting class of plastics, and cannot simply be crumbled, melted and re-moulded like the Thermo-plastics (polyethylene, etc.). About all that could be done is to crumble them to granules or coarse powder as bulking agent in other materials. Then what happens when that material in turn, is scrapped?

We should also bear in mind there are vastly more tonnages of this material about than some hundreds of scrap wind-turbine blades. (Why are the blades scrapped? Why not used on refurbished plant at least while still sound? Or are these blades themselves no longer sound?).

The other fibre-glass uses for a long time now have been for buildings components, vehicle parts and perhaps most of all, the hulls and superstructures of boats. Some of the vessels are for serious puposes, e.g., lifeboats, fishing-boats and naval mine-hunters, but the majority are purely pleasure-boats from paddle-boards to "super yachts"; perhaps hundreds of thousands altogether around the world. What happens to any of these when scrapped as worn out?


What of other materials?

Thermoplastics can be recoved and turned into new mouldings; but I don't know if that secondary material is very long-lived or recoverable in turn. Typical new uses are drinks bottles, shopping-bags and the imitation-wood used for roofing battens and garden furniture.

Scrap wood can be used, if only as a fuel or for making particle-boards or paper. Unless soaked in preservatives or paint we don't want in the soil, some could be used to make horticultural mulch, where it will rot down. Just as dead trees fallen in natural forests, do.

Or metal: all metals can be re-used and re-used yet again (with some attrition) as their own material. Or if in big lumps like a ship's hull, sunk as artificial reefs; but that merely creates needless fish houses by a criminal waste of good-quality steel, up to tens of thousands of tonnes at a time.

How though does one scrap a caravan body, a "super-yacht" hull, a bicycle frame or a surfboard, made from glass- or carbon- fibre?

[The SW user NedKelly's profile photo is of a 'Reliant' three-wheeler car. Those were of fibre-glass bodies on steel chassis.]


What you show there, the turbine-blades, are really part of a problem; and a very small part of it, too.

@ArishMell It's all extremely discouraging. We are performing so many tasks in a state of abysmal ignorance, and absolutely no one knows the long term effects...very much like what is now happening with microplastics.

It's been postulated that every human being now has at least one teaspoon of microplastic somewhere inside their bodies, including inside their brains.

Only extreme caution prevents it...eliminate plastic water bottles, microwave cooking ONLY in pyrex or oven safe cookware. TRY not to buy food packaged in plastic. And drink filtered water from a glass water glass.

So what's next with these fiberglass burials? Will some farmer, someday, be planting on top of the burial and tiny microscopic shards of fiberglass will be included in your potatoes?

@acpguy Ev are dangerous that for sure , but leaving your car unattended and it getting set on fire is not the fault of the car. there should be way more security on those cars.

you mean toxic stuff went into the wind generator caused chemicals to go into water due to their production? otherwise that makes no sense.
i also said they aren't good for the environment when they are made but i guess you're blind on all the fumes you are inhaling as the american legend you are.

talk to me about bad water when you fix your led ridden country.

@HobNoblin
The whole environmental movement was a lie from the start.


You won't get much argument over that statement.

@HobNoblin No it is not a lie even though often touted as such for nakedly political / commercial reasons; but the whole approach to it is haphazard, panicky, often misplaced and often based on very poor knowledge of basic science and engineering.

@ArishMell It's real to the rank and file believers. To the ones pulling the strings It's about power and control.