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NPEP Success Stories: General Electric, Bridgeville Glass Plant
General Electric Company, Bridgeville Glass Plant Reduces 86,000 Pounds of Lead
The General Electric Company's (GE) Bridgeville Glass Plant in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, has been in operation for 87 years and employs 104 people. Bridgeville produces specialty glass tubing used in a variety of lighting applications both for GE and other external lighting product manufacturers. This facility produces over 18,000 tons of glass annually using glass furnaces that melt raw materials and form them into glass tubing.
Bridgeville's NPEP Goal
We set a goal to reduce lead emissions from 118,000 pounds in 2002 to
88,000 pounds in 2005. These reductions included all environmental mediums
(air, water, and waste emissions). This goal was in keeping with GE's
Ecomagination Initiative, explained in the quote below by Jeff Immelt,
Chairman and CEO, General Electric Company.
"Ecomagination is about the future… We will focus our unique energy, technology, manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow's solutions such as solar energy hybrid locomotives, fuel cells,
lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting and water purification technology. We will establish partnerships with our customers to tackle their most pressing environmental challenges and double our research spending to develop the products and services they need… And we will use these technologies to improve our own energy efficiency and environmental performance."
As a company whose products are distributed globally, GE is responsive to changing regulatory requirements all over the world. The European Union is restricting concentrations of lead in manufactured products. Anticipation of these restrictions and a desire to retain a competitive position in world commerce accelerated the necessity of finding reduced lead or lead-free alternatives. Additionally, lead has been designated as a priroity chemical by EPA and we are aware that emissions to the environment can be detrimental to human health and safety for many years.
NPEP Project Implementation
We planned to achieve our goal by reducing or eliminating the lead
content in glass using less toxic raw materials and by recycling the pollution
abatement dust and leaded glass cullet.
Hurdles Faced
The most significant hurdle we faced was working with our customers
to find glass compositions that contained less or no lead that would run
in their existing machinery without causing costly product yield and/or
quality issues for the end users. The general perception from most of
our customers was that it is impossible to use glass substitutes with
less or no lead content and still maintain their current levels of manufacturing
yields and product quality.
The hurdles faced on recycling of air pollution abatement dust related
to engineering and preventive maintenance upgrade challenges to eliminate
breakdowns on the process that would require us to collect and dispose
of the dust generated while the system was down for repairs. The hurdles
associated with the cullet recycling improvements related to segregation
of different glass types and cleanliness of the glass cullet.
Waste Minimization Results
Our efforts have been quite successful. We far exceeded our targeted reduction
goal of 30,000 pounds over a three year period. The total quantity of
lead emissions was reduced from about 118,000 in 2002 to about 32,000
in 2005. We successfully reduced lead emissions by a total of 86,000 pounds,
a 73% reduction, during this period.
Lessons Learned
When undertaking a project like this, you should proactively anticipate
customer needs and changing regulatory requirements. It's also important
to be vigilant in seeking environmentally friendly products, operations
and processes. Finally, we have learned that global market distribution
requires adapting manufacturing practices to address multifaceted regulatory
concerns.