Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas and research partners have unveiled a new chemical process to recycle conventional epoxy-based turbine blades that it said could speed up “by decades” the ability to re-use the giant components and even give new life to landfilled material.

Recycling blades has posed a huge challenge due to the chemical properties of epoxy resin, a resilient substance that was believed to be impossible to break down into re-usable components.