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OPINION Reactions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2018, 96 (19), p 5May 7, 2018Cite this:C&EN 96, 19, 5Letters to the editor Recycling renewables My colleagues and I at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, appreciated the April 9 cover story titled “Recycling Renewables” (page 34), which raises what we agree are critical issues related to sustainable energy generation. Such issues have inspired numerous research efforts aimed at improving the situation, our own included.Specific to wind energy and with the benefit of support from the National Science Foundation (award 1230884), we set out to address the issue of sustainable wind turbine blade production from start to finish. In order to accomplish this, we focused on the creation of inexpensive, high-performance biobased epoxy resins from readily available components and successfully converted them to composites and confirmed that their properties were appropriate for such applications—thus addressing creation and use. In parallel, we further developed mechanical and chemical recycling strategies based on vitrimer formation—thus addressing end-of-life issues. Finally, our team applied life-cycle analysis to assess the impact of our strategies and identify challenges and opportunities in this space.This has resulted in three recent papers (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.6b03919, 10.1021/acs.iecr.6b03825, and 10.1021/acs.iecr.6b03829), with additional submissions planned. While not perfect (higher curing temperatures are needed versus conventional materials), the combination of high performance with reductions in materials costs and infusion times versus conventional systems offers clear potential for further development, especially when coupled with the recovery and reinfusion of high-value carbon fiber textiles (all demonstrated during the course of our efforts).Finally, I would like to highlight the fact that this effort would not have gotten off the ground without seed funding from the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), nor would we have progressed nearly as far without the assistance of numerous contacts in industry. Related to thermosets, my group has had help in some form from ACS Technical Products, Air Products, AkzoNobel, BASF, Bayer MaterialScience/Covestro, Broadview, CVC Thermoset/Emerald Performance Materials, Dixie Chemical, Huntsman, King Industries, Leepoxy, Momentive/Hexion, Perstorp, Reaxis, Sartomer, and TPI Composites, to name just a few—as well as repeated support from TURI as one of the very few sources of funding for applied research.Such support deserves recognition; indeed, we will not solve real-world problems without it. We very much hope to see others in both academia and industry working to build knowledge and solutions in this domain and hope that our own efforts will serve as useful contributions to the resolution of some of these issues.Daniel SchmidtLowell, Mass.