![Rob Van Vleet secures a wind turbine blade onto an oversized truck at the Kimball Wind Farm in southwest Nebraska.](https://will.illinois.edu/images/uploads/54589/rob_header__medium.jpg)
As Wind Energy Thrives, So Does Its Waste Problem
While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm, researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years, a figure that doesn’t include newer, taller, higher-capacity versions.