# How do wind turbine makers count emissions from blades at end of life?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/wind-turbine-blade-end-of-life-emissions

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.

- [Metal products end of life](https://senseible.earth/answers/metal-products-end-of-life-category-12)
- [Appliance end of life in India](https://senseible.earth/answers/appliance-end-of-life-emissions-e-waste-india)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [ISO 14067:2018, carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.