Wind turbine blade recycling picks up speed

The small town of Sweetwater, in Nolan County, Texas, sits north of three of the world’s largest onshore wind farms. Some call it the “wind turbine capital of Texas.” On West Alabama Avenue in the town’s southwest corner, its history collides with a more modern legacy. There, across from the Sweetwater Cemetery, where some graves date back to 1880, is a modern graveyard for wind turbine blades. Hundreds of blades, each cut into thirds, lie there like gigantic white bones stacked on one another. “It’s an eyesore,” says Nolan County attorney Samantha Morrow. The blade boneyard was a hazard for neighborhood children until recently, when the landowners put a fence around it, she says. It remains a breeding ground for rattlesnakes and vermin. A company called Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) started bringing blades to the site in 2017. General Electric (GE) and other turbine manufacturers paid GFS to shred them