News

PCA Mill Wins AF&PA's Environmental & Energy Award
October 31, 2007

The PCA Mill in Tomahawk, Wisconsin won the American Forest & Paper Association's (AF&PA) 2007 Environmental and Energy Award. The award recognizes companies that contribute significantly to advances in practical application of new and improved environmental and energy technology.

A panel of industry experts, joined by representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Resources for the Future, and the American Chemistry Council, recognized the Tomahawk Mill for a 'closed loop' pollution prevention project. The mill installed an innovative system that collects six times more hazardous air pollutants than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required. The pollutants are biologically converted into methane, which is subsequently collected and reused as source of 'green energy' to run an on-site power boiler.

The amount of natural gas displaced by the recovery of the methane biofuel is equivalent to the quantity required to heat 2,400 Wisconsin homes annually. The project has an additional environmental benefit in that it reduces naturally occurring greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 76,000 tons per year.