How do wind turbine makers count emissions from blades at end of life?
For the manufacturer it is Scope 3 Category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products. Estimate blade mass sold, the share likely landfilled, co-processed in cement kilns or recycled, and apply a factor per route. Blades are mostly glass fibre composite, which is hard to recycle.
The inputs
- Blade mass per turbine model sold in the year.
- Likely end-of-life route in the market where it is installed.
- A factor per route: landfill, kiln co-processing or recycling.
For the wind farm owner
Decommissioning waste is their Category 5 in the year it happens, not a figure to report years ahead.
What Senseible does here
Senseible turns your fuel, power and material invoices into a dated, sourced activity record, the starting point for a per-unit footprint.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, ISO 14067:2018, carbon footprint of products (iso.org)
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.