European Metal Recycling (EMR) has opened a pilot centre for reprocessing used wind turbines.
The Warrington-headquartered firm now accepts all parts of the sustainable power infrastructure assets at its Glasgow South Street site.
Nine-tenths of a typical turbine can be infinitely recycled, according to EMR, allowing the new facility to boost the circular economy.
The plant also looks to reuse and refurbish components where possible.
Although steel, aluminium and copper from the turbines can be relatively easily recyled, many blades are constructed with a mixture of balsa wood and fibreglass.
The new site has achieved a permit to receive and store these items to trial innovative techniques to handle and downsize them to enable repurposing, recovery and recycling.
Research and development projects to boost reclamation of rare earth magnets used within modern wind turbines will also be based at the new processing centre.
Charlotte Stamper, strategic partnerships manager at EMR, said the Wind Turbine Processing Centre would “bring together some of the most exciting research when it comes to reusing or recycling wind turbines, ensuring this green technology is even more sustainable”.
