An Amarillo Army veteran’s company is expanding rapidly to meet a growing need, keeping wind turbine blades out of landfills. Since starting in 2025, it has kept 312,000 tons out of landfills across the nation. Here’s how.
Cody Earle, CEO of Destructable, helped start a company centered on wind turbine recycling about 3.5 years ago. This company aimed to find a solution to dealing with the fiberglass inside the blades.
“So, in pursuing that, we started doing a lot of field work,” Earle said. “We’re going out to the field and cutting the blade, transporting it, bringing it to our facility, shredding it, and then trying to recycle it.”
That led to Destructable, which officially started in 2025, focusing on the service side. What started with 10 employees now has more than 115 completed projects under their belts, repurposing more than 12,000 tons of fiberglass and 300,000 tons of metal.
“It’s kind of breakneck,” Earle said. “A year ago, we had 10 people and I think we just passed the 120-employee mark. It’s been a blessing for sure.”
The growth of Destructable continued last week with the acquisition of Wind Ecom, a 7-year wind energy decommissioning company. Both share the mission of reducing the carbon footprint of renewable energy.
“They’ve kind of ran similar and they’ve diverted a lot of the material away from landfills,” Earle said. “Now we can take their experience and expertise and really build on our mission to get as much of the material as we can, as many sites as we can, and really drive that sustainable message of landfill diversion.”
Destructable has worked in more than 20 states, from Texas to New York. Destructable also works with recycling solar energy parts.
Destructable is planning to expand its solar panel service by establishing a turnkey recycling facility in Amarillo. This will allow them to take panels from the field and fully process them in-house.
“We’re really trying to build out our recycling capabilities within wind turbine blades and solar panels, either by acquisition of companies that are already farther down the line, or building our own internal capabilities,” Earle said. “We are an end-of-life solution company, but really geared toward that 100% landfill diversion. That’s how we make every decision; can we get 100% of everything out of the landfill, diverted to a recycling facility, and ensure that it’s used properly?”
People can contact Destructable at destructable.com for a quote. The team will be dispatched to the site, where it will break down the turbine blade and transport it to one of the Destructable shredding facilities in Amarillo or Dexter, Iowa. There, the shredding becomes raw material and will be stored in Amarillo for further use, or taken to a waste energy plant.
How can wind turbines’ fiberglass be recycled, reused?
Through Destructable’s partners, the fiberglass is shredded and turned into fiberglass rebar. This is currently being used in construction.
“Our sister company, Constructable, actually did a recent pour and they used the recycled fibers in it on the foundation,” Edwards said. “We’re using it right now in current projects as well.”
Earle estimated the fiber rebar market will grow within the next year.
Earle, an Army veteran, is also known as the founder of VetsGiving, an Amarillo-based nonprofit that feeds veterans for Thanksgiving. That desire to help the community continues through Destructable, which has donated more than $20,000 to community outreach programs.
“There’s three things you do with money – you spend it, you save it, and you give it away,” Earle said. “We have to take care of the people around us, but we also have to take the blessings we have, the money that we have, and be able to give back. That’s really a big mission and goal of mine for Destructable to be able to do that.”
Alana Edgin writes about business for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and South Plains-West Texas region. Got a news tip? Contact her via email at aedgin@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Destructable Amarillo keeps wind turbines out of landfills. Here’s how
Reporting by Alana Edgin, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
