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Want Clean Energy? Then You Also Want Battery Recycling.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Increasing the reuse and recycling of batteries at their end of life is essential to increasing the sustainability of batteries and creating a circular economy. Recycling must ramp up. There are huge opportunities for recycling to decrease the need for newly mined materials in batteries. Source: Courtesy of Li-Cycle.

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How Are Lithium-ion Batteries that Store Solar and Wind Power Made?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Can they be reused or recycled at the end of their life? Then You Also Want Battery Recycling. And what about the solar panels and wind turbines that generate the electricity that batteries store? Where do their raw materials come from, and how can we ensure their valuable contents are recovered rather than wasted?

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What Happens to Wind Turbine Blades at the End of Their Life Cycle?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Blades are made mainly of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and balsa wood and the wind industry drives a significant portion of global demand for these materials: 10% of world demand for fiberglass and 24% for carbon fiber come from wind turbines. Can wind turbine blades be recycled? Source: Firdaus Latif/Wikimedia Commons.

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Just and Sustainable Solutions for the Mining and Recycling of Rare Earth Elements in Wind Turbines

Union of Concerned Scientists

Recycling rare earth elements. In addition to increasing oversight and transparency into rare earth element supply chains, one of many viable solutions to mitigating rare earth element extraction is recycling permanent magnets. Supporting rare earth element recycling. Solar Panels Should Be Reused and Recycled.

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Wind turbine blades could someday be recycled into sweet treats

Environmental News Bits

Wind power is an increasingly popular form of renewable energy. However, when it’s time to replace the huge turbine blades that convert wind into electricity, disposal is a problem. See also the story in The Guardian.

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Challenges and Opportunities in Mining Materials for Energy Storage Lithium-ion Batteries

Union of Concerned Scientists

Energy from the sun and wind never runs out and is used again and again. Rechargeable large-scale batteries can be charged with solar or wind power and cycled thousands of times in their lifetime. More batteries are being recycled through good policy , innovation, and corporate commitment. Click to learn more!

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GE’s renewables unit makes zero waste pledge for wind turbine blade production

Environmental News Bits

GE’s renewable energy unit said Tuesday it would manufacture zero waste wind turbine blades by the year 2030, becoming the latest operator in the sector to try to develop more sustainable production processes.

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