Integrating Smart Ways to Reuse

We’re focused on implementing innovative strategies to reuse and recycle the materials we use within our business.

Skydance bridge spanning over Interstate 40 in Oklahoma City.
Minimizing Our Footprint Through Smart Waste Management
Our commitment to proper stewardship of the materials we use means we’re continually taking on new sustainable practices that minimize our environmental footprint. Today, we repurpose everything from our wooden distribution poles to coal ash.
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Making Strides in Beneficial Reuse
We’ve turned our largest process waste stream – coal ash — into an in-demand material in construction projects. In the last two years, more than 95 percent of the ash from our Muskogee and Sooner facilities was recovered and sold to the concrete and cement industries. Recently our byproduct was repurposed for the construction of the I-40 Crosstown Expressway, a major artery through Oklahoma City.
Dolese Truck.

Long Description for Coal Ash Reuse Chart

Overview

The bar graph chart shows both amount of coal ash produced and reused for each year from 2016 – 2020.

Values

Numerical values presented on the chart image:

Coal Ash Reuse
Year Coal Ash Produced, Tons   Coal Ash Reused, Tons   
2016 491,415 464,360
2017 307,286 272,898
2018 225,114 195,190
2019 160,315 125,812
2020 140,914 89,291

Presentation

The bar graph chart represents the amount in tons of coal ask reused for each year from 2016-2020. Each year is represented with two vertically ascending bars indicating the amount of coal ash produced and the amount reused per year.

Spotlight
Repurposing Materials
Scrap Metal
We’ve recycled nearly 44,000 tons of scrap metal since 2007, including leftover metal from transformers, facility maintenance projects and other heavy equipment.
Building Materials
To date, we’ve avoided sending approximately 3,300 tons of wooden transmission and distribution poles, pallets and distribution wire spools to landfills, repurposing them as construction materials.
Vegetation Reuse
Our vegetation waste, a ready supply of plant cuttings, is reused by elephants at the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens as an important part of their care and wellbeing.
Goats at the Oklahoma City Zoo enjoy climbing and relaxing on the repurposed wooden wire spools.
A Goat-Load of Fun

We’re always finding creative ways to reduce our environmental impact. This year, our distribution wire spools were repurposed by the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens for use by the goats in the Children’s Zoo. The goats enjoy climbing and relaxing on the spools.

Innovation in Vegetation Management

Our employees are focused on finding innovative ways to take part in reusing and recycling our resources, including our plant cuttings and other vegetative waste. Our vegetation management team has diverted more than 640 tons of vegetation waste from the landfill by sending material to the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Gardens, which is then used by elephants, bears, apes and zebras as supplemental food and social enrichment.

Scrap metal including leftover metal from transformers and facility maintenance projects is ready to be recycled.
How We Do It: Recycling in Action
Through ongoing partnerships, recycling and repurposing has become part of our DNA. When they can’t be reduced or reused, we look for ways to recycle valuable materials and keep them out of landfills. That means we’re reusing our wood poles and other equipment, diverting ash from landfills and jumpstarting office paper and plastic recycling programs.
Carbon Reductions
In the last five years, we’ve diverted roughly 1.3 million tons of ash from landfills through our commitment to beneficial reuse. Based on estimates from the American Coal Ash Association, OG&E fly ash reuse helped avoid over 3 million tons of CO2 emissions in the last 13 years.
Wooden Poles, Pallets and Cables
Roughly 54 percent of our wooden waste transmission and distribution wire spools are repurposed into landscape timbers, side rails for hiking trail paths, retaining walls, mulch and other products.
Paper, Aluminum and Plastics
In our corporate office, we recycle all paper and plastic, and encourage our employees to minimize use. To date, shred bins in our offices have generated more than 1.4 million pounds of recyclable material.