Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills

[neurosis]

I don't usually like to get in to the climate change debate.  
I read this article a while back and found it interesting since Washington State has been pushing wind and solar power.  

Wind Turbine Blades Can't Be Recycled, So They're Piling Up in Landfills

A wind turbine's blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can't just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.

The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another.

"That's the end of it for this winter," said waste technician Michael Bratvold, watching a bulldozer bury them forever in sand. "We'll get the rest when the weather breaks this spring."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... -landfills">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills

[gcode]

Another green subsidy bust

https://www.wsj.com/articles/another-green-subsidy-bust-11607730090?mod=opinion_lead_pos3&fbclid=IwAR2dEIzV7kaO6DAMGQX8Szbhm6bMTUB1nPPC8Y0P83EmxmJCR96KRHwyZ7U">//https://www.wsj.com/articles/another-green-subsidy-bust-11607730090?mod=opinion_lead_pos3&fbclid=IwAR2dEIzV7kaO6DAMGQX8Szbhm6bMTUB1nPPC8Y0P83EmxmJCR96KRHwyZ7U

Move over, Solyndra. Another green boondoggle from the Obama era has failed, and taxpayers are out as much as $510 million. Late last week Judge Karen Owens approved a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization by Tonopah Solar Energy. Tonopah operated the Crescent Dunes solar plant in Nevada that received $737 million in guaranteed loans from the Obama Administration.

The plan includes a settlement with the Department of Energy that leaves taxpayers liable for as much as $234.68 million in outstanding debt, but the total public cost is even higher. Crescent Dunes also received an investment-tax credit, and the 2009 stimulus legislation allowed it to receive a cash payment in lieu of credit. In 2017 the plant received more than $275.6 million from Treasury under the Section 1603 program, which it used to service its outstanding liabilities. So taxpayers already gave Crescent Dunes cash to pay off its taxpayer-backed loans.

[Jim at Gentex]

It's the same with these Green New Deal fuktards driving around in their stupid little electric cars and thinking they are saving the planet.
Once the batteries in those cars are no longer functional, they end up in a landfill too, with all kinds of nasty chit that will eventually seep into the ground.

Same dirty little secret as the wind turbines.
They give the appearance of being environmentally friendly, but in reality they will potentially do more harm than good.

[Matthew Hajicek]

It's all a balance.  To evaluate each option you've got to quantify how much harm, for how long, effecting how many people; no option is perfect.  The best option is to use less energy.  If you drive smaller vehicles for shorter distances then you've reduced your pollution no matter what energy source you're using.

[Jim at Gentex]

[quote="Matthew Hajicek" post_id=202 time=1607979238 user_id=57]
 If you drive smaller vehicles for shorter distances then you've reduced your pollution no matter what energy source you're using.
[/quote]

Agreed.
And if China and India continue to pollute at the staggering rate they do, the US could stop using all fossil fuels tomorrow and it wouldn't make a bit of difference on the global scale.  Like pissing in the ocean.  

The greenies only try to control people's behavior where they can because it makes them feel good, while the REAL mass polluters will continue to tell them to fuck off and not change a thing.

It's all about perception.

[joshc]

[quote="Jim at gentex" post_id=204 time=1607980103 user_id=83]
[quote="Matthew Hajicek" post_id=202 time=1607979238 user_id=57]
 If you drive smaller vehicles for shorter distances then you've reduced your pollution no matter what energy source you're using.
[/quote]

Agreed.
And if China and India continue to pollute at the staggering rate they do, the US could stop using all fossil fuels tomorrow and it wouldn't make a bit of difference on the global scale.  Like pissing in the ocean.  

The greenies only try to control people's behavior where they can because it makes them feel good, while the REAL mass polluters will continue to tell them to fuck off and not change a thing.

It's all about perception.
[/quote]
that's how I feel about it as well, we are just a drop on the bucket.
here is a look at an ocean pollution chart comparing countries https://www.plasticethics.com/home/2019/3/17/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-the-most-with-plastic-waste">https://www.plasticethics.com/home/2019 ... stic-waste">https://www.plasticethics.com/home/2019/3/17/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-the-most-with-plastic-waste

so you can buy all the cardboard straws you want, every plastic straw we don't throw into the ocean someone in china's throwing an entire dumpster in there so making an impact here in the USA is not a huge deal, they need to be trying to make an impact elsewhere where the real problems are.
Comparing other pollutants like CO2, etc. is almost just as bad