If I can keep my promise, this should be the last article in this series on wind turbines. In it, I will continue to try to explain why these large turbine blades, made of a glass fiber-thermoset composite plastic, are so difficult to recycle.
I found, one company, Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS), based in Bothell, Washington, with a plant in Sweetwater, Texas, has developed a process to recycle the special plastic used in these blades. This special plastic material has been permanently cured and can’t just be remelted and molded.
In the Sweetwater plant, the process starts with magnetic separation equipment to remove the metal bolts and fasteners. The cut-up blades are then shredded. The resulting material is next blended with either virgin or recycled thermoplastics to make a reinforced, filled thermoplastic pellet.
