Although there hadn’t been a good deal development in the recycling of fiberglass items once they’d storefront signs already been produced, some new innovations in recycling technology and makes use of for recycled fiberglass products are starting to emerge. One of the most promising is the recycling of old wind-turbine blades.
According to Amy Kover, a reporter for GE Reports, General Electric’s in-residence information site, even as replacing existing blades with greater technically superior ones can growth wind farm performance by way of as a lot as 25%, the manner creates the inevitable waste. “Crushing a blade yields approximately 15,000 kilos of fiberglass waste, and the system creates hazardous dirt. Given their full-size duration, sending them to a landfill entire is out of the query,” she cited.
In 2017, GE teamed up for a recycling initiative with a Seattle-area-based Global Fiberglass Solutions Incorporated (a corporation that’s been recycling fiberglass due to the fact 2008, and has patented a method to recycle old blades into products such as manhole covers, building panels, and pallets). In less than a 12 months, GFSI recycled 564 blades for GE and predicted that within the coming years, GE might be able to re-manufacture or reuse up to 50 million kilos of fiberglass waste.
In addition, a amazing deal of fiberglass itself is currently made of recycled glass. According to the National Waste and Recycling Association’s publication “Waste360”, recyclers are turning damaged glass right into a viable resource referred to as cullet (glass that’s been overwhelmed and wiped clean), which in flip, is being sold to manufacturers of fiberglass insulation. “Owens Corning uses multiple billion kilos of cullet every year for residential, industrial and commercial fiberglass packages,” they report. Meanwhile, Owens Corning has stated that as plenty as 70% of their fiberglass insulation is now manufactured the use of recycled glass.
