Zero Waste Groups Kickstart Solar Panel Recycling in California

Solar power is a great alternative, but recycling the large panels is a tall order. Now, a group in California is helping residents recycle their solar panels.

Zero Waste Sonoma is working to help residents in the North Bay area deal with their used solar panels. Residents were once confused on what to do with their materials, but Zero Waste Sonoma held a collection event, along with an e-waste drop-off, at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa.

"Ultimately our goal is to recycle panels," said Courtney Scott, Zero Waste Sonoma’s Household Hazardous Waste Program manager.

"This is true, yeah," Brandon Benton, Zero Waste Program Manager at Conservation Corps North Bay, said.

"Or reuse panels," Scott said.

"Either way, we're capturing them,” Benton said.

The duo have paired up to get the brand-new residential panel recycling program started. Conversation Corps is handling and storing the panels before they’re recycled or permanently disposed of.

"Cause some of them have things like lead and copper in them, which are hazardous metals, but it also has rare earth metals and those are the ones that we don't have a ground supply of in the United States," Scott said. "Those come from other countries and those are the ones that I'm really concerned about collecting and making sure that we are able to reuse those in the next generation of panels."

"We have more need than we have material, and it's really important to collect that material so that we can help sustainably push the creation of these new panels," Scott said.

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