Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Developing Ireland's Sustainable Transport System: Discussion

Dr. Walter Stanley:

I agree with the Senator. I refer to recent legislation and life cycle costing for vehicles. For example, the PET material we have developed comes from bottles. The recyclers crush them and then we reharness them to turn them back into useful products that can then be recycled again, so it is from cradle to grave and back to cradle. I appreciate that if some sort of incentive were there to promote greener materials, one would take into account their end of life. I refer, for example, to 80 m wind turbine blades. Each blade comprises approximately 20 tonnes of glass fibre thermoset resin that cannot be recycled. During their useful life, wind turbines are great, but then 60 tonnes of blades go into landfill.