Are environmental options really environmentally beneficial?

[Louise]

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Welcome to the wind turbine graveyard. It stretches a hundred metres from a bend in the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming.
Between last September and this March, it will become the final resting place for 1,000 fibreglass turbine blades.
These blades, which have reached the end of their 25-year working lives, come from three wind farms in the north-western US state. Each will be cut into three, then the pieces will be stacked and buried.
Turbines from the first great 1990s wave of wind power are reaching the end of their life expectancy today. About two gigawatts worth of turbines will be refitted in 2019 and 2020. And disposing of them in an environmentally-friendly way is a growing problem.
This cost taxpayers $200,000 or more per unit to have them transported and decommissioned.
It's time to stop the madness.We need more support open your eyes to the environmental issues with windmills they will only be wasted and decommissioned just like all the others have been."

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I really felt the need to share this, we are being ‘sold’ the concept of environmentalism, without really fully understanding the environmental cost of manufacture, running and disposal. These images are obscene!

[Honey]

This is disgusting, it seems nothing is truly environmentally friendly :disgust:

[Meghan]

This is disgusting, it seems nothing is truly environmentally friendly :disgust:

It is shocking isn’t it? I agree there seems to be hidden agendas and yet more problems that arise from being environmentally friendly

[Carolyn6]

Wow I have always enjoyed seeing wind turbines on the horizon and watching their huge propellers turning in the wind thinking they are saving our planet by using sustainable energy. How sad that they are contributing to earths pollution!

[Lloyd]

I believe that wind turbines never pay back their environmental costs in their lifetimes. If the turbines lasted twice as long then it would be beneficial, but the reality is that the environmental impact of making them, transporting them (these things are huge and require fuel guzzling transport to move them), maintaining them and then breaking them and putting them in landfill to never decompose is more environmentally costly that then energy they generate. They also impact on wildlife and birds.

Yet again, sadly we are spun a yarn about all these new technologies, when in real terms they are just new products to make and sell! The government needs to be seen to be doing something, it won’t deal with the real problem which is consumerism, so it formulates something for us to buy and be sucked into!

[Jackie361]

A Amazon are doing a ,assign advertisement campaign to promptly the millions they have invested in wind turbines and electric vehicles but now I look at this campaign as a future problem when they need to dispose of the turbine blades, is there ever a way forward that is truly beneficial to our environment?

[Ely]

Based on the OP question about benefits of environmentally friendly products One has to question that they can’t be environmentally beneficial, generally we don’t make anything that is designed to last, the costs of making then disposing of these products is by their very nature environmentally expensive.

The only way to be more environmentally friendly is to reduce the population and return to a more simpler lifestyle, more people work from home, less movement of people etc. There is absolutely no justification for people to travel the globe for a meeting or a conference. The lists of atrocities done to this planet in the name of consumerism is horrendous and it is about we wake up and see it for what it is!

[Florry]

I have just found that my oven has stopped heating up and the 2 year warranty has just run out. I checked the heating element and it has burnt and split which begs the question, are we ever going to be environmentally friendly when an oven lasts just 2 years and will end up in landfill somewhere!

[orchard_girl]

I'm confused, why are they being thrown away? As far as I know, fibre glass is really easy to repair, surely they can be reused! You could run checks over them to detect faults and repair from there?

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[Caree]

I have just found that my oven has stopped heating up and the 2 year warranty has just run out. I checked the heating element and it has burnt and split which begs the question, are we ever going to be environmentally friendly when an oven lasts just 2 years and will end up in landfill somewhere!

Often it’s the thermostat that needs replacing, this can be done quite cheaply. Household goods are designed to last too long, we live in a world of consumerism and making ‘stuff’ that doesn’t last is all part of that cycle.

[Caree]

I'm confused, why are they being thrown away? As far as I know, fibre glass is really easy to repair, surely they can be reused! You could run checks over them to detect faults and repair from there?

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I have to admit, if anything breaks in my house on jump Google to see if it’s mendable by myself. I’ve saved myself a lot of money over the years.