Current global commitments to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in increasing demand for wind energy technologies as a secure, affordable supply of energy. However, the recent expansion of wind energy generation is creating a growing waste disposal issue associated with the decommissioning of wind turbine (WT) blades in the future.Whilst the average recyclability across the components of a modern WT has been calculated to be 80% by mass, the composite WT blades present a challenge for waste management. There is currently little legislation present for the regulation of end-of-life waste management for the wind energy industry in Europe.However, a review of European waste management policy has shown that landfill bans effectively divert waste from landfill and drive towards energy recovery. This paper considers the producer responsibility scenarios for manufacturers to recycle WT blades. This will include an investigation into the current and future methods of WT blade disposal and specifically the potential of carbon fibre (CF) to add to the recyclability of blade systems.

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Abstract--An extrusion line has recently been installed at Fermilab in collaboration with NICADD (Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development). This new facility will serve to further develop and improve extruded plastic scintillator. Since polystyrene is widely used in the consumer industry, the logical path was to investigate the extrusion of commercial-grade polystyrene pellets with dopants to yield high quality plastic scintillator. The D0 and MINOS experiments are already using extruded scintillator strips in their detectors. A new experiment at Fermilab is pursuing the use of extruded plastic scintillator. A new plastic scintillator strip is being tested and its properties characterized. The initial results are presented here.