“Today, EPA posted a briefing paper outlining difficulties the U.S. will face recycling and safely disposing of the materials used for green energy technologies. Renewable Energy Waste Streams: Preparing for the Future examines the waste produced once solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and windmills reach the end of their useful life. This briefing paper identifies key challenges that America faces in the near future as the growing use of renewable energy technologies creates a new generation of materials that need to be recycled or properly disposed of in order to protect human health and the environment.
“Recycling is a critical piece of our future for not only consumer commodities like paper and plastic, but also the ever-expanding renewable energy sector,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Without a strategy for their end-of-life management, so-called green technologies like solar panels, electric vehicle batteries, and windmills will ultimately place the same unintended burdens on our planet and economy as traditional commodities.””
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United States Environmental Protection Agency 6 January 2021.
March 15, 2021
“Archived: Briefing Paper January 2021
EPA archived the paper titled Renewable Energy Waste Streams: Preparing for the Future. The paper was originally posted on January 6, 2021; however, it did not follow the appropriate review process before posting and it contained misleading and incorrect information, so the document was removed from the EPA website.”
https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/archived-briefing-paper-january-2021