Solar Panels Are Starting to Die, Leaving Behind Toxic Trash – ‘Tricky to recycle. As oldest ones expire, get ready for a solar e-waste glut'

When solar panels reach their end of their life today, they face a few possible fates.

Under EU law, producers are required to ensure their solar panels are recycled properly.

In the United States, it's the Wild West: With the exception of a state law in Washington, the US has no solar recycling mandates whatsoever.

Voluntary, industry-led recycling efforts are limited in scope.

"Right now, we're pretty confident the number is around 10 percent of solar panels recycled," said Sam Vanderhoof, the CEO of Recycle PV Solar, one of the only US companies dedicated to PV recycling.

Recyclers often take off the panel's frame and its junction box to recover the aluminum and copper, then shred the rest of the module, including the glass, polymers, and silicon cells, which get coated in a silver electrode and soldered using tin and lead. Tao and his colleagues estimate that a recycler taking apart a standard 60-cell silicon panel can get about $3 for the recovered aluminum, copper, and glass.

Vanderhoof says that the cost of recycling that panel in the US is between $12 and $25-after transportation costs, which "Oftentimes equal the cost to recycle." At the same time, in states that allow it, it typically costs less than a dollar to dump a solar panel in a solid-waste landfill.

https://www.climatedepot.com/2020/08/22/solar-panels-are-starting-to-die-leaving-behind-toxic-trash-tricky-to-recycle-as-oldest-ones-expire-get-ready-for-a-solar-e-waste-glut/