LOUISVILLE, KY (November 16, 2007) – Charah®, Inc., a leading ash management provider for the coal-fired electric utility industry, has been featured in the September/October 2007 issue of Coal Power Magazine. In an article entitled “AmerenUE teams with Charah and Home Depot to market ash for concrete mix,” the 2006 opening of Charah and AmerenUE’s Labadie Power Plant’s unique concrete packaging facility was detailed. This Missouri facility is the first concrete packaging facility in the United States to operate on power plant property, closest to the source of the ash. It is expected to conserve natural resources by annually recycling 60,000 tons of fly and bottom ash into two million bags of high-quality concrete mix.
The unique project results from a partnership between AmerenUE, Charah, and The Home Depot®. The concrete mix is prepared and packaged at the facility in fully recyclable, two-handled plastic bags from Charah. It is then distributed to Home Depot stores in the St. Louis metropolitan area for sale to their customers under the QUIKRETE® brand name.
The 60,000 tons of ash being recycled for concrete mix represents about half of Labadie’s annual production of bottom ash. Ultimately, AmerenUE officials hope to recycle all of Labadie’s bottom ash. In addition to the ash being used to make concrete mix, more than a year’s worth of Labadie’s bottom ash—200,000 tons—was used as structural fill for the state-of-the-art plant.
Charah and Ameren are charter members of the U.S. EPA’s Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2), which encourages beneficial use of coal by-products. In April 2005, Charah was awarded the prestigious C2P2 first-place award for Innovation by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for its outstanding achievements in increasing the amount of coal combustion products (CCPs) beneficially used. Charah’s award was for its achievements in developing the new, patent-pending concrete mix and packaging sold at The Home Depot stores in the Virginia market and in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
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