How to Recycle your Old Appliances

   
  Every year in North America we send approximately 16 million refrigerant-based appliances to our landfills. These include refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners and dehumidifiers. Each of these appliances contain a significant amount of recyclable materials. Recyclable material and parts that contain products made of steel, aluminum, copper, and plastic. Although we are all helping the environment by recycling household products and waste, when it comes to large items like appliances we often don't know what to do. Dealing with large items such as these seems overpowering. But don't despair there are methods available to help you to get rid of an appliance in a more environmentally friendly manner. The following are suggestions you may wish to consider. 

 Many of the appliances going into the garbage may be working perfectly. Many are thrown away simply because the owner wishes to upgrade to something bigger, better, more efficient, or more convenient. So rather than sending them to the landfill why not donate them to a friend, neighbour, or local charity. One of the quickest ways to do this is to post a note on the bulletin board at your workplace. This will usually solicit many positive inquiries. If anyone says they want your old appliance make sure to leave it operating until they arrive. This assures a better response because people can see it really does operate properly.

 But what do you do with an old appliance that isn’t working? I would say that it too should be recycled. Recycled in a way to have the least impact upon the environment. Try contacting a recycling company or a scrap metal dealer. They may charge you to pick it up since the refrigerant inside the unit needs to be removed. This type of refrigerant is now considered a hazardous waste and removing it’s both time consuming and requires special equipment. Equipment that can only be operated by a technician with an ODP (ozone depletion prevention) license. As the final step the technician adds a disposal tag to the machine to verify the refrigerant was successfully removed. Even most scrap metal dealers no longer accept appliances unless they are properly tagged.

 Another option is to contact a local appliance repair company, have them come to your home, remove the refrigerant, and tag the appliance for disposal. Once tagged the appliance can be processed by any scrap metal dealer. The down side of this method is that the homeowner must transport the appliance themselves. All of this requires a lot of time and energy.

 An easier way to recycle appliances is by contacting a used appliance company. Whether they rebuild them for resale, or dispose of them, your old appliances will be dealt with properly. Even an appliance uneconomical to repair may be exactly what they are looking for. They may strip it for recycling, or use the parts to rebuild an appliance similar to yours. As a business they are regulated both locally and nationally and therefore must comply with strict recycling guidelines. Plus, being a local company they will be more in-tune with your areas concerns and know the best and quickest way to help you.

 A final source for recycling is one that most people forget  to consider -- their own town or city. Contact your municipality to ask if they offer a recycling program. Some cities do it themselves at their landfill or sorting sites. Others depend upon local businesses to provide the service for them and will offer you a list of who to contact. Theses  businesses will accept appliances for recycling at their own premises. Some may even come to your home to pick them up. 

 Throughout this article we have been suggesting  you use a 'local company', or someone in 'your town' rather than a large national recycler. This is because it seems strangely contradictory to the basic principles of recycling to transport old appliances vast distances before the process can begin. Transporting them to a central processing plant hundreds of kilometers distance means a lot of unnecessary waste of vehicles, gasoline, and manpower. Why not do it locally and eliminate all that wasted energy. Also, some utilities companies are offering an appliance recycling program that under closer scrutiny would seem not to be as environmentally friendly as you might wish. They pick up old appliances but rather than recycling them some may be resold to third world countries. "Is reselling a used appliance to another country recycling?" -- that is a matter of interpretation. Even if  the appliances are going to be reused what will be the eventual cost to us all. Once in these countries, where concerns regarding recycling or garbage disposal are not highly enforced, they have a far greater potential to end up harming the environment. We must never forget there is only one environment and we are all responsible for its maintenance and protection.

 Whichever method you finally use to recycle your old appliances give yourself a pat on the back. By being a better recycler you are not only helping yourself, you are helping your children, your grandchildren, and other generations far into the future.

 By Donald Grummett
 

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