WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Solar panels can't be recycled in Australia.
OUR VERDICT
Misleading. Experts say most panel components can be recycled in Australia.
AAP FACTCHECK - A senior National Party politician is clouding the truth with claims that solar panels can't be recycled in Australia.
Experts say the glass and metal frames from solar panels are being recycled locally, with several Australian-based companies saying they can recycle up to 90 per cent of the component materials.
Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack made the claim during an interview with ABC News 24, where he welcomed the cancellation of a planned NSW solar farm.
French-owned renewable energy giant Engie's proposed project would have installed 220,000 solar panels (page 13) near Yass in southern NSW and operated for 30 years (p2).
"Just last week, a French conglomerate dropped plans to build a solar factory right next to Yass, which was going to be bigger than the town itself," Mr McCormack told ABC News 24.
"The footprint, hundreds of thousands of sun mirror panels - panels which can't be recycled, at the moment, as it stands."
The ABC News 24 interview wasn't published online after it aired, and Mr McCormack's office did not publish a transcript either
However, a user uploaded a video to YouTube, and the MP's comments (timestamp one minute 45 seconds) have been verified against a recording of the interview provided to AAP FactCheck by ABC.
When asked for evidence for the claim, Mr McCormack's spokesperson pointed AAP FactCheck to an article from Sustainability Victoria, a statutory agency tasked with shaping the state's sustainability policies.
Its January 2025 article stated that only 17 per cent of the weight of a solar panel could be recycled in Australia.
AAP FactCheck found that the statement had been retained from an earlier version of the article dated August 1, 2023.
When asked about the statement, Sustainability Victoria clarified that there are actually local firms that could recycle more than 90 per cent of a panel.
"The market for solar panel recycling is emerging in Australia and there are now specialist solar PV recyclers that can recover up to 90 per cent of a solar panel for reuse," a spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
They added that they would update the Sustainability Victoria website, and have since done so.
Nick Florin, a sustainability researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, says the difference between recycling around 17 per cent of panels and more than 80 per cent is the ability to process the glass components.
He says the challenge for recyclers is finding a market for the recovered glass, though some Australian-based recyclers do process glass panels into products such as sand for use in construction products.
"I am optimistic for the future and agree that there is time for the industry to mature and advance to capture more value from end of life solar, including reuse opportunities," Associate Professor Florin told AAP FactCheck.
Rong Deng, a solar panel sustainability expert at the University of NSW, said while most recyclers have traditionally only recovered the aluminium frames, a process for recycling more than 90 per cent of panels is established.
"There are at least four solar panel recyclers in Australia who can recycle over 80 per cent, some even over 90 per cent by weight," Dr Deng told AAP FactCheck.
She said the long lifespan of solar farms gave existing recyclers time to scale up to meet demand when grid-scale projects were set to be decommissioned.
Recycler Elecsome's Victorian plant can turn solar panel glass into industrial concrete - an innovation which arose out of an RMIT University and the University of Melbourne partnership, supported by federal funds.
Elecsome secured a patent in 2024 for the process, which involves grinding the glass into fine particles to create artificial sand, which is then added to pre-mixed concrete.
Queensland-based Pan Pacific Recycling says it can also process the panel glass for use in benchtops and tiles.
Pan Pacific director John Hill said he was awaiting final council approval to commence full operations, with tens of thousands of panels ready to go.
"The myth we need to bust is that it can't be done - it can," he told AAP FactCheck.
"We've proven we can do it."
Sustainability Victoria also said Australian-based Sircel and Lotus Recycling offer solar panel recycling.
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