ScottishPower has reported a 99.9% combined reuse and recycling rate for materials from the decommissioning of the original Hagshaw Hill wind farm in South Lanarkshire.
According to the company, a report compiled by Mott MacDonald found that 79.5% of the materials from the site’s 26 turbines and associated components were recycled and 20.4% reused.
Mott MacDonald said it reviewed project decommissioning data and interviewed stakeholders. ScottishPower did not publish or link the report, however, and no public copy had been located as of 1 September 2026.
The company’s website announcement does not disclose the total tonnage, whether the percentages were calculated by weight, the material inventory or infrastructure included, or the calculation and classification methods used. It also does not explain the difference between the reported 99.9% and 100%, although The Times separately reported, attributing the information to ScottishPower, that less than 0.1% of the turbine materials went to landfill.
It remains unclear from the published material whether the assessment included foundations, concrete, underground cables, access infrastructure, oils and electrical equipment, or any residues produced during recycling.
The absence of a material breakdown is significant because the chosen boundary can change the result substantially. A July 2026 government-commissioned study found that concrete was the dominant onshore-wind material when foundations were included. Separately, the government’s Onshore Wind Taskforce strategy says the readily recyclable steel tower comprises 70% of a turbine, although it does not state the measurement basis. Composite blades present a greater technical challenge.
A November 2024 presentation by European Metal Recycling described a Hagshaw Hill case study covering 24 turbines and 657 tonnes, reporting 97% recycling and 3% reuse. It also referred to 20 major and minor components recovered, but did not define the 657-tonne inventory or state explicitly how the percentages were calculated.
Those figures are not directly comparable with Mott MacDonald’s later 79.5% recycling and 20.4% reuse breakdown. ScottishPower says the latter relates to all 26 turbines and associated components, but its announcement gives no tonnage, material boundary or calculation basis. The EMR presentation also predated the subsequent processing of Hagshaw’s blades. The difference could therefore reflect scope, timing, denominator or classification rather than a change in performance.
Blades processed in Northern Ireland
ScottishPower said all the former turbines’ blades were processed by Lurgan-based Plaswire into a polymer intended for construction and engineering applications, including fencing, marker posts and drainage components.
In an earlier pilot involving Ørsted, rather than the Hagshaw project, Plaswire said blades were cleaned, shredded and granulated before being incorporated into its RX Polymer. The route uses the recovered material in products other than new turbine blades.
The cited releases do not provide the weight of the Hagshaw blades, the process yield, the volume of blade-processing residues or evidence that products containing Hagshaw-derived material have entered the market. ScottishPower said some other turbine components would be reused for industry training.
Hagshaw Hill began operating in 1995 and is identified by ScottishPower as Scotland’s first commercial onshore wind farm. Its original 26 turbines were dismantled in 2023 and replaced with 14 turbines providing more than 79MW of capacity, commonly rounded to 80MW.
ScottishPower said at least 10 companies in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK received contracts connected with the decommissioning. It previously reported that more than 100 jobs were supported across the combined decommissioning and repowering programme, rather than recycling alone.
Plaswire chief executive Andrew Billingsley said the company’s output was 50% higher this year after growing by 30% in the previous year, and that it expected to double its workforce over the next 12 months. The ScottishPower announcement gave neither current production tonnage nor current headcount, so the absolute scale of the proposed expansion cannot be determined from it.
The potential market is growing. The Onshore Wind Taskforce strategy predicts that decommissioning will peak in the late 2020s and throughout the 2030s at approximately 0.5GW to 1GW of capacity annually, with most of it in Scotland. ScottishPower separately said around 1GW of turbines in its own portfolio was due to be taken down over the coming decade.
The July 2026 government-commissioned study concluded that reuse and refurbishment generally retain more value than material recycling, while refurbishment offers the strongest employment benefits. It also identified limited UK recycling and processing infrastructure and weak business cases for some material streams as constraints on developing domestic capacity.
Publication of the Mott MacDonald report, including its material inventory, boundaries and calculation method, would allow the Hagshaw result to be assessed against those wider challenges.
