Florida Power & Light

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), a subsidiary of PL Group, is one of the largest investor-owned electric utilities in the US. It serves seven million people, or about half the population of Florida, in an area covering almost the entire eastern seaboard and southern third of the state. This region continues to experience strong growth, driven by Florida's tropical climate, beauty and quality of life.

FPL Group's other operations include ESI Energy, a participant in the growing independent power business, and Turner Foods Corporation, one of the largest citrus producers in Florida.

For FPL, environmental stewardship means implementing sustainable development policies at corporate, regional and national levels. Its commitment at the corporate level includes activities such as by-product synergy, pollution prevention, waste minimization and recycling, and energy conservation programmes. By-product synergy and pollution prevention programmes, including waste minimization and recycling initiatives, have been in place for several years at various FPL sites.

Through these activities, and those of FPL's chemical standards and review board, FPL's fossil-fueled plants reduced their output of hazardous waste from 145 tons in 1986 to just 41 tons in 1991. This was accomplished through product substitution and by segregating waste streams to avoid mixing non-hazardous and hazardous wastes.

Recycling is also a priority at FPL. In 1981, FPL's central reclamation and salvage (CRS) department was created to process scrap wire and cable. This has since grown from a five-person scrap operation to a 50-person recycling centre. Each day, 17 trucks drive across the state, collecting scrap materials such as cable and wire, wood, plastics, porcelain, concrete, paper, cardboard, toner cartridges, light bulbs, lead-acid batteries, transformers and aerosol cans. Every FPL facility participates in the recycling programme, and each employee has an opportunity to recycle materials in his or her workplace.

In 1994, FPL recycled 5,000 tonnes of metal, 2,000 tonnes of wood, 1,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard, 300 tonnes of porcelain and concrete, 100 tonnes of PVC, and ten tonnes of plastic stretch wrap. FPL's recycling activities are also estimated to save more than 100,000 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions.

The company managed to reduce the cost of disposing of this scrap material from $1.2 million in 1991 to just $281,000 in 1995. Even more impressive is the revenue generated from these activities - $2.8 million in 1994.

Some of the specific projects are outlined below.

Scrap porcelain and concrete as road fill

Large quantities of porcelain, a waste material virtually unique to the utility industry, are generated from scrapped insulators and electric equipment with porcelain bushings. FPL had been sending this waste, together with scrap concrete, to landfill at a rate of more than 1,000 tonnes a year.

Then FPL's recycling co-ordinator recognized that the material might be useful in road construction. He contacted Eakins Construction, which expressed an interest but insisted that it did not want metal in the waste stream. To address this concern, FPL reached an agreement with a scrap dealer to pay Eakins for the scrap metal.

This initiative reduced FPL's landfill costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Because the material is donated by FPL, it has reduced Eakins's raw material costs and provided a source of revenue through the sale of both the crushed porcelain and concrete and the scrap metal.

Scrap wood as fuel for sugar mills

FPL had been sending more than 500 tonnes a year of untreated wood products such as damaged pallets, dunnage, and old spools to landfill. Recognizing the potential fuel value of this wood, the company approached a local sugar mill, Okeelanta Sugar Corporation, with the idea of burning the wood in boilers to provide process steam.

After testing the wood, which FPL mulched, Okeelanta agreed to FPL's price, and another successful by-product synergy was born. FPL has not only eliminated its landfill costs for the scrap wood, but has converted this waste stream into a revenue source. In addition, significant amounts of landfill space have been conserved.

Other by-product synergy and pollution prevention projects

Other synergies that have been successfully exploited by FPL include:

• Conversion of scrap wire insulation to fuel for the solid waste authority;
• Conversion of used stretch wrap to raw material for a plastic lumber product made by Mobil Chemical;
• Return of wire reels to manufacturers for reuse;
• Refurbishment of equipment in lieu of scrapping;
• Testing and resale to developing countries of old street lights and sodium bulbs that still have additional life but which no longer meet US specifications;
• Cleaning, granulizing, and sale of scrap PVC, polyethylene, and polycarbonate for reuse;
• Consolidation and use of surplus paints, solvents, and degreasers;
• Collection and sale of aluminum and copper wiring from surplus transformers;
• Donation of unwanted poles to local farmers for fencing.

1995 recycling totals:

Source: This case study is featured in the 'By-Product Synergy Primer' (1997) produced by the Business Council for Sustainable Development - Gulf of Mexico.