Challenge to stop solar panels becoming a 'waste mountain'

[Default0ptions]

“According to the British government, there are tens of millions of solar panels in the UK. But the specialist infrastructure to scrap and recycle them is lacking.
Energy experts are calling for urgent government action to prevent a looming global environmental disaster.
"It's going to be a waste mountain by 2050, unless we get recycling chains going now," says Ute Collier, deputy director of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
"We're producing more and more solar panels - which is great - but how are we going to deal with the waste?" she asks.”

Rusting and worn out wind turbines are another big issue:

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[adam2]

I very much doubt that this will become a problem.
PV modules are very long lasting and will often last the lifetime of the building to which they are fitted.

[Ralphw2]

The frames of solar panels are aluminium, and highly recyclable. The bulk of the actual panels are glass, or modified sand. the quantity in a modern 400 Watt panel is about 5 - 10 litres, or 10 - 20Kg. 100,000,000 panels would be up to half million tonnes. Over a 30 year life cycle that is up to tonnes150,000 tonnes a year. The UK currently landfills about 14 million tonnes a year in total. These a very pessimistic estimates, and assumes 0% recycling of the glass.

The UK currently already landfills about 1.25 M tonnes of glass each year.