Firm Marks 100 Million Tons of Trash Into Energy

Wheelabrator Technologies will mark a significant achievement in the nation’s waste-to-energy industry: the conversion of 100 million tons of municipal solid waste into energy since 1975. Wheelabrator also recently celebrated 10 years of operation for its two Broward County, Fla., waste-to-energy facilities which opened in 1991.

Wheelabrator Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management, is one of the United States’ most successful developers, owners, and operators of commercial waste-to-energy projects. Wheelabrator pioneered the waste-to-energy industry, opening the first commercially successful project in Massachusetts in 1975. Wheelabrator owns and/or operates 16 facilities with a combined daily processing capacity of 24,000 tons of trash and a total electric generating capacity of 670 megawatts, enough electricity to provide the energy needs for 600,000 homes.

“Wheelabrator reached this goal through the excellence of our people, the ongoing refinement of our technologies, and the professionalism of our municipal and commercial partnerships,” said Wheelabrator President Richard T. Felago. “We will continue this insistence on quality and performance in the 21st Century.”

The accomplishment also stems from the company’s success in developing progressive public/private partnerships; integrating source reduction, recycling, and landfill options; pioneering new energy and environmental technologies; and demonstrating operating procedures that have set high industry standards for efficiency and regulatory compliance.

The Wheelabrator South Broward and Wheelabrator North Broward facilities are two of the company’s most advanced projects and are pivotal elements in the county government’s highly integrated solid waste management system. Since 1991, the plants have recycled 14.5 million tons of trash into energy equal to nearly nine billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

In 1994, Wheelabrator South Broward received the Waste-to-Energy Systems Excellence Award, for environmental safety and operational excellence, from the Solid Waste Association of North America. The South Broward facility also has been certified by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration as a Voluntary Protection Program site.