40
To complete its green transition, Europe should mine its own trash
(www.anthropocenemagazine.org)
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
40 points (100.0% liked)
zerowaste
3034 readers
53 users here now
Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!
Celebrate thrift as a virtue, talk about creative ways to make do, or show off how you reused something!
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Someone pointing out that "solar panels are an ideal ore for everything that goes into solar panels" was half the reason I changed my mind on solar. I'd been pretty skeptical that solar could ever cover its production costs, and for the first go around I still doubt it, but recycling changes the picture.
The other half the reason I changed my position on solar panels was the relative independence it brings users.
What do you mean by
If you mean EROI, no one should be skeptical about that, unless you are constantly being fed misinformation. Solar panels quickly generate the energy required to produce them, in the worst cases it takes a few years.
And the good thing about solar panels is, they are incredibly durable, once they are put up they just keep on producing energy. Personally, I would argue that as long as not every roof is covered with them, recycling solar panels is bad. Why replace something that is still producing energy (and at that point for free, in EROI terms), when you could leave the old ones up and put the new panels on roofs that have none yet.
Luckily, companies are starting to see that as well, and refurbish solar panels instead of recycling them.
There's a reason it goes reduce -> reuse -> recycle.
I saved a ton on solar by making my own panels out of the materials from my neighbor's panels. They must be against recycling, since they seemed awfully upset!