Introduction  The growth of wind power industry is accelerating faster than ever worldwide, at the same time, the waste generation from end-of-life wind turbine blades is expected to peak in recent years. Efficient recycling of end-of-life wind turbine blades has become a key issue affecting the sustainable development of the wind power industry and its low-carbon-footprint target.

  Method  Traditionally, majority of the end-of-life blades were either buried or incinerated after being dismantled, causing resources wasting and severe environmental problems. In this context, this paper reviewed the mainstream domestic and international recycling processes of end-of-life wind turbine blades such as mechanical recycling, pyrolysis, chemical recycling and comprehensive recycling, and analyzed their corresponding advantages and disadvantages.

  Result  By summarizing the industrial recycling application scenarios, this paper provides suggestions and prospects for the prospective recycling market of the end-of-life wind turbine blades.

  Conclusion  Wind power industry plays an important role in realizing the "carbon-peaking and carbon-neutrality" goals through assisting in implementation of the energy-conservation and emission-reduction strategy. However, the wind turbine blade recycling market is currently in the exploratory stage with medium and small-size, there is an urgent need for policies, standards and technology development to help with its large scale industrialization. This paper illustrates current status and development trend of domestic and international recycling technology and application scenarios of end-of-life wind turbine blades, and aims to provide the scientific references for the sustainable and low-carbon development of the wind power industry.