California has no idea what to do with all the photovoltaic waste that is piling up

• Landfills across California are filling up with people's dead panels, which contain toxic metals such as lead and cadmium
• Used-up solar panels can be recycled, but only about 10% of them are recycled
• The rest are getting dumped in landfills where they will pollute the environment for years to come

Everything "green" turns out to be more polluting than the "dirty" technologies it replaced

• For many years, California incentivized rooftop solar panels by offering taxpayer-funded rebates to households
• Many of the early-installed panels have reached the end of their life and there is no way to safely dispose of them
• Politicians are now calling for a new solar tax to address the problem
• But it will not do anything other than line the pockets of the people who proposed it in the first place
  1. There's no doubt that there will be an increase in the solar panels entering the waste stream in the next decade or so, warns AJ Orben, vice president of We Recycle Solar, a Phoenix-based company that breaks down solar panels and extracts their valuable metals while disposing of the remaining toxic elements.
  2. Used-up solar panels can be recycled, but Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and CEO of Recycle PV Solar, says that only about 10 percent are actually recycled, according to estimates drawn from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA).
  3. Ironically, We Recycle Solar does not have any recycling centers in California, despite the vast majority of its business coming from the state, because California has strict permitting laws for toxic materials.
  4. The Golden State was a proud pioneer in rolling out rooftop solar panel solutions back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when almost nobody else was doing it, claiming that the technology would stop global warming and ease pressure on the energy grid.
  5. For many years, California incentivized rooftop solar panels by offering taxpayer-funded rebates to households who took advantage of them.

    

https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-07-19-green-solar-energy-massive-landfill-waste-california.html