All the products TPI manufactures are based on customer designs and specifications. Once finished blades leave TPI facilities, our customers install them on wind turbines. At the end of their life, the disposal of TPI manufactured parts remain the responsibility of our customers. As a manufacturing company, we recognize that while we may not oversee the final disposal of our product, it is still our responsibility to properly manage our material usage and waste production. We are committed to doing our part to increase material efficiency and recyclability, while continuing to pursue partnerships with industry consortia, OEMs, and academia on the circularity of wind blades.

Materials

Raw materials are the key cost driver of the products we manufacture. We aim to use our materials as efficiently as we can while still meeting the expectations and requirements of our customers. Our products are generally custom designed and built to the specifications of our customers. We currently track the materials used in our manufacturing processes through our product lifecycle management system and enterprise resource planning system. In 2024, approximately two percent of our materials used were sourced from renewable resources (balsa wood) and approximately four percent were made from recycled content (polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and steel bolts). In addition, all facilities have chemical and hazardous waste management systems in accordance with laws and regulations in their respective regions.

Materials Recycling

Wind turbines are 85% to 90% recyclable, with the wind blade material constituting the remaining percentage that cannot be easily recycled, due to the nature of thermoset composites.¹⁴ Wind composite industry leaders, such as TPI, are focused on closing this recycling gap in order to reduce landfilling of wind energy waste. TPI is actively working toward creating sustainable end-of-life solutions by developing alternative uses for composite products reaching their end of life. We have led numerous projects to convert decommissioned wind blades into a variety of alternative uses including concrete products, cured-in-place pipe liners, recycled fiberglass yarns, construction panels, and structural flooring applications.

In addition to repurposing end-of-life composite products, TPI is working closely with industry and academic leaders to develop and implement solutions to enable circularity for thermoset composites. These solutions will allow for the recovery of high-quality composite materials such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, and core which can be reused in building wind blades, and other thermoset composite products such as electric vehicles. During 2024, TPI collaborated with the University of Tennessee on developing a solution for recycled fiberglass to be combined with synthetic fiberglass to create yarn materials scaled for use in composite applications. Through this partnership, TPI funded the purchase of pilot scale equipment to begin to test the scalability of the project in hopes of finding a use for this waste material. We also partnered with the University of Delaware on the recovery of carbon fibers through pultrusion to be reused in wind turbine blades.

We remain highly engaged in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions from our manufacturing operations, reduce waste, and implement pathways available for the reuse of as much of the waste we generate as possible. This year we kicked off five new project proposals that have been awarded by the US Department of Energy focused on wind blade recycling and sustainable materials which we will continue working on in 2025.

Waste

Mitigating and managing waste generated from production is a key objective for TPI. Our facilities manage the waste generated according to local regulations. Our waste data is collected monthly using invoices from disposal facilities and haulers. All waste data is verified by on-site EHS supervisors and through annual audits conducted at our ISO 14001 certified facilities. These processes allow TPI to understand the volume and cost of waste produced to ensure waste reduction remains a priority.

We have waste continuous improvement teams at each location, which completed waste stream analyses and developed waste reduction projects.

In a continuation of our program, in 2024, we achieved our waste rate reduction goal (five percent reduction for sites without new blade model implementations during the year) by focusing our projects on optimizing direct material usage. In the coming years, our main focus is to encourage all sites to adopt alternative waste disposal methods instead of relying on landfilling. 

This year, we had 50,386 metric tons of waste, of which 9,154 metric tons was hazardous and 41,232 metric tons was nonhazardous waste. Landfilled hazardous waste is disposed of through controlled confinement in a landfill that is lined, monitored, and in compliance with government regulations.