Solar Panel Recycling Faces a Waste Surge

An international modeling study projects that discarded solar panels could generate 297 million to 402 million tonnes of waste by 2060.

It finds that effective recycling could deliver roughly $530 billion to $935 billion in net economic benefits and avoid up to 3.32 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, but uneven infrastructure, limited recovery of silicon and silver, and landfill risks could constrain those gains. Outsourced processing may lower costs while shifting environmental burdens toward poorer regions.