From Scrap Wood to Steam: How Procter & Gamble is Using Renewable Energy to Make Toilet Paper

Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Constellation, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, today announced the completion of a 50-megawatt biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant located at one of P&G’s largest US facilities.

Constellation owns and operates the plant, which supplies steam to P&G’s Albany, Georgia, paper manufacturing facility and generates electricity for Georgia Power. Additionally, steam from the plant will be used to power an 8.5-megawatt steam-to-electricity generator at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, helping the base increase its energy security and utilize renewable sources to meet energy demands.

The biomass-fueled plant provides P&G with 100% of the steam energy used to manufacture Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue at that location.

“This project utilizes a low cost, locally abundant fuel source, that would otherwise be left to decay, go to waste, or be sent to landfill as a way to produce onsite renewable energy, reducing the footprint for Bounty, Charmin, and our consumers,” James McCall, P&G product supply sustainability leader, told Energy Manager Today.

The plant’s fuel supply will come from locally abundant biomass that would otherwise have been left to decay, burned, or potentially sent to landfill, including discarded tree tops, limbs, branches and scrap wood from local forestry operations, crop residuals, such as pecan shells and peanut hulls, and mill waste, such as sawdust.

Georgia Power’s purchase of energy from Constellation is part of its multifaceted strategy to encourage and cultivate renewable energy sources in Georgia and was made possible under a program co-developed with, and approved by, the Georgia Public Service Commission.

“We have a long-term vision to one day run all of our manufacturing facilities on renewable energy, and we’ve committed to delivering 30% by 2020,” said McCall. “The biomass facility in Albany, where we make our Bounty and Charmin products, along with our recent windfarm in Texas will get us nearly two-thirds of our way to that goal.”

Along with P&G’s recent wind energy project in Texas, this plant nearly doubles the company’s use of renewable energy.