Safety and Health Concerns for the Users of a Playground, Built with Reused Rotor Blades from a Dismantled Wind Turbine

Abstract

This paper analyses the user safety of a playground built out of reused blades from a dismantled wind turbine. Located in Rotterdam and designed by the Netherlands architecture firm Superuse Studios, the playground, called “Wikado”, represents an example of the circular economy applied to the built environment. With reused materials, Wikado represents a saving in resources and energy, when compared to a standard playground built with primary materials. Furthermore, the playground creates a unique design experience for its users, who can still recognise the original rotor blades following their transformation into slides, platforms, and tunnels. However, the safety of the playground could be questioned. This paper will analyse the materials and products used in the playground and their condition some years after opening. The analysis focuses on the risks of human health during the use of the playground. It considers the shape and the sharpness of the rotor blades, its components such as glass fibres and epoxy resin. As a result of the analysis, two risk analysis conceptual models help to assess the health concerns regarding the contact with the materials, and some yellow drops leaching from the rotor blades. This analysis informs the contemporary debate concerning the reuse of materials, and more generically, the circular economy applied to the built environment: whether it is recommended and safe to reuse materials for a different function from that which they were originally designed. This paper will explain that in the analysed case study, it can be safe to reuse materials for a different function, but only with the appropriate precautions.

Circular Design of Composite Products: A Framework Based on Insights from Literature and Industry

“…All of these pose a threat to human health and the environment. Zappeloni [73] discusses best practices to minimise such emissions in the manufacturing stage, and Medici expressed concerns over long-term outdoor exposure [74]. Additionally, (re)processing, which aims to separate, or at least downsize the materials, risks hazardous emissions [7,72,75].…”

End-of-Life of Composite Materials in the Framework of the Circular Economy

“…Wikado speaks for sustainable, circular solutions in terms of the reuse of materials and components. As Medici et al (2020) [63] reported, the content of the CE is crucial to reconsider strategies regarding the reuse of resources and materials.…”

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

“…Joining up the start and the end of low-carbon infrastructure supply chains, resource security concerns [102,106,107], design for recycling [108,109] and supply chain security and development [95,103] are covered. Solutions that go beyond material recovery are emerging with publications on lifetime extension [110,111], eco-design [7], reuse and repurposing [83,93,112,113] and remanufacturing [114]-terminology explained in Section 4.…”