(NAT) REVERLAST TURBINE DOCKS

Old, discarded wind turbine blades don't biodegrade. They do, however, float if sealed. Finnish startup Reverlast is capitalizing on that fact, by taking end-of-use blades and converting them into stylish floating docks.

Although wind turbines are a prominent symbol of the green energy movement, their giant mostly-fiberglass blades typically have to be replaced every 20 to 30 years. Recycling them is a challenge, as it's quite difficult to break fiberglass down into its glass-fiber and epoxy resin components.

As a result, decommissioned blades are most often crushed and burned in kilns as part of the pyroprocessing stage of cement production. Unfortunately, the crushing process is energy-intensive, and the burning process generates greenhouse gases. More infamously, the blades are also sometimes simply buried intact in landfills – out of sight, out of mind. That's where Reverlast comes in.

Founded last August by alumni of Aalto University's schools of technology, art and commerce, the company currently takes old turbine blades, cuts them up into shorter sections, then fills those sections with expanded polystyrene foam. Plans call for the sections to instead be sealed with fiberglass caps at the exposed ends, eliminating the need for the foam filling. More of this article (New Atlas) - link - more like this (recycling turbine blades) - link - more like this (recycling turbine blades 2) - link - more like this (recycling turbine blades 3) - link