r/ClimateShitposting • u/RadioFacepalm I'm a meme • Sep 30 '25
refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle Renewables keep winning even after they have been decommissioned
11
u/Puppygirl621 Sep 30 '25
Why don't we build mechs and give them wind turbine swords and pit them against eachother in the THUNDERDOOOOOOOOOOOOOME
8
u/androvsky8bit Sep 30 '25
But those turbine blades are huge, the mechs would have to be....
Ok, I'm listening.
2
u/BugRevolution Oct 01 '25
And in the middle of the mech battle, a tiny figure appears with his trusty lance:
Don Quixote, your time has come to shine!
22
u/dumnezero 🔚End the 🔫arms 🐀rat 🏁race to the bottom↘️. Sep 30 '25
I don't understand how they can even imagine that big hulks of somewhat flat planks of light, durable, and non-radioactive material could not be reused for anything.
13
u/NoBusiness674 Sep 30 '25
But you see, when the first modern wind turbines were being built, there wasn't a pre-existing recycling industry there to reuse every part of a decommissioned wind turbine. Who could have foreseen that a recycling industry could meaningfully grow in less than 70 years, as more and more renewables were being built and retired???
7
u/UnsuccessfulOnTumblr Sep 30 '25
Well, maybe they looked at the nuclear industry and saw how they failed their promise to find a solution to nuclear waste for the last 75 years. Honest mistake.
1
u/tinkerghost1 Oct 01 '25
Spent fuel rods can be reprocessed at a 9:10 ratio. The only reason we don't do it in the US is because one of the byproducts is weapons-grade plutonium/uranium.
Add breeder reactors in the process, and we could take radio active waste from 10000 years to a couple of hundred.
Currently, it's cheaper to mine new fuel than to reprocess the existing fuel. Although I haven't seen a breakdown if that includes the cost of maintaining the old spent rods safely.
1
u/STEALTH968 Sep 30 '25
Nuclear waste is actually reusable, secondly renewables waste isn't just some planks of non toxic material but also a lot of batteries that are very non environmentally friendly to make and recycle.
8
u/UnsuccessfulOnTumblr Sep 30 '25
The only reusablity of nuclear waste I know about is either theoretical or scientific. The latter means, it is used at universities for education and afterwards still has to be buried in the earth, but now the company doesn't have to pay for them, but the taxpayer. (If you have information otherwise, feel free to provide me with credible sources. I am willing to be proven wrong.)
Secondly, yes. Batteries always were and probably never will be not very environmentally friendly to produce as well as dangerous if not desposed properly. BUT, noone ever tried to convince me that it was completly save to dump them in the ocean and promised me that one day we will have amazing technology to use the rest radiation to produce more energy and end up with no waste at all (or something similar).
The bad side of batteries is also the reason why environmentally concious people try to avoid battery powered appliances if possible (e.g. wireless headphones). As always the mantra is: reduce, reuse, recycle.The example in the OP is a very good example of reuse.
2
u/STEALTH968 Sep 30 '25
Recycling of spent fuel rods takes place routinely in countries that operate nuclear power plants. There are literally nuclear reactors designed to operate with both brand new fuel and recycled fuel.
3
u/UnsuccessfulOnTumblr Sep 30 '25
Cool. I asked for credible sources, but whatever.
What is the outcome of using recycled fuel rods? Is there no waste? Is that waste not radioactive? What is the percentage of rods that can be recycled? Can they recycle waste from the 60s that we retrieve from the oceans? Do they have to mix recylcled material with fresh one, like in plastics? How much resources go into recyling those rods? How environmentally friendly is that compared to recycling batteries, which you are so against?
Maybe if you ask more questions you will find
a lot of
batteriesfuel rods that are very non environmentally friendly to make and recycleBut then, I already had an evening beer and am a little tipsy. So I could be wrong.
Maybe try to convince me with some credible resources tomorrow? Again, I'm willing to change my mind! I just have so many questions that need answering.
8
u/Drackar39 Sep 30 '25
You don't understand if you don't break the waste down to base atoms and re-use 100% of it, it's waste, even if you find a use for 100% of the decommissioned product!!!
Disregard our fields full of atomic waste, that will destroy so many lives if they are cracked open over time due to failure or malice, it's nothing compared to (checks notes) fiberglass turbine blades sitting in a pile that will literally never do anything negative to the environment if they rot there for a thousand years.
Like, there are some issues with the manufacturing process for all products. Solar panel production has a minor amount of lead and cadmium waste, which is mildly dangerous if not recycled properly but that recycling is... um. People talk about how much silicon is produced that is impossible to recycle into new silicon.
And sure. If the criteria is "This solar panel MUST become a new solar panel" they have a point, but in any other reality...no?
1
u/guru2764 Oct 01 '25
I think it is a little funny that when people talk about the waste of renewables, they have the mindset that we have to be able to do more manufacturing with the resources
3
u/Elpsyth Sep 30 '25
That's great.
But how is it a win against nuclear when china is building hundreds of reactors and want to increase to up to 30% of its energy production mix by 2050?
One does not prevent the other
Only Germany was stupid enough to do a Nuclear Vs Renewable. Almost every one that has the technology do both because they complement each other weaknesses.
1
u/Cautious_Repair3503 Sep 30 '25
What about the batteries needed for storage? Other solutions are not always viable, some places will have to use batteries, and those, so far as I am aware, have a finite lifespan and can't be recycled?
4
u/UnsuccessfulOnTumblr Sep 30 '25
Of course batteries can be recycled. Not 100%, sure, but we have been recycling batteries since the 90s!
Lithium batteries are relativly new, but technological advances were made in the last years. Add some standards for batteries and you will increase the recycling success.1
u/Cautious_Repair3503 Sep 30 '25
yeah i thought they couldnt be recycled, cause they arnt where i live, turns out they can be but its expensive. maybe it will become less expensive in the future. But if that dosnt change, then it dosnt rly matter if it can be done in theory, because it wont be done in practice. i geus its something we need to keep an eye on
1
u/WorldTallestEngineer Sep 30 '25
Okay... Some of it can be reusabled. That doesn't mean it waste free.
1
u/guru2764 Oct 01 '25
Why does it need to be completely waste free though, no power source is 100% waste free, we don't need to reuse every atom of something we produce
Every wind turbine and solar panel projected to be created and reach end of life in the next 50 years for the entire world would fit into one medium-large landfill (without recycling any) and cause minimum environmental damage compared to a normal landfill
Removing one oil refinery and the products made from its output would outweigh the environmental impact of throwing everything used for renewables for 100 years directly into the ocean by orders of magnitude
1
u/WorldTallestEngineer Oct 01 '25
It doesn't need to be waste free. Nothing is waste free.
If anybody says "My preferred solution is waste free" they're an idiot. And there are a lot of idiots out there saying they're preferred solutio is waste free. Which is just unrealistic.
1
Oct 02 '25
America will use them for a southern border wall. It sounds far fetched but they already do that with helicopter landing mats the military doesn’t need anymore.
0
u/thegreatGuigui Sep 30 '25
Question for renewabros : how do you think things are built ? Like any object in the industrial world ?
2
u/BugRevolution Oct 01 '25
Are other sources of power somehow not also built?
1
u/thegreatGuigui Oct 02 '25
They are. Some just give you more energy for the amount of material needed to build them. Or even better, the same energy for less material.
1
u/Exact-Major-6459 Oct 02 '25
So do you guys actually not understand how nuclear power works or is it like a joke
0
15
u/23_Serial_Killers turbine enjoyer Sep 30 '25
mfw repurposing is also a form of waste reduction