A Beginner’s Guide to Recycling Appliances

When was the last time you bought a refrigerator, or a microwave, or some other major appliance for your house or business? Did you pay for the delivery company to haul off the old equipment, or did you drop it off at a scrapyard? In an economy that thrives off of increasingly disposable commodities, and the rise in concern over protecting the environment, appliance recycling is a place everyone can make a contribution.

In order to best understand the state of recycling in the US and programs that are in place to support and educate the public, one should start with the Environmental Protection Agency’s overview of the Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) program and the four major environmental concerns regarding recycling today.

Ozone Depletion Due to Insulating Foam Blowing Agents

Older models and some brands of imported freezers and refrigeration units are lined with insulating foam containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) that can have a negative impact on the ozone if improperly disposed of and simply dumped at landfills with no effort made to recycle them.

Environmental Contamination from Refrigerant and Related Chemicals

There are federal requirements of the recovery of refrigerant from appliances before dismantling or disposing the equipment. There are also regulations of the management and storage of mercury, used oil, PCBs, and other universal waste materials. However, federal requirements aren’t always enough to offset the fact that there is no economic incentive to follow the regulations, making improper disposal common. Dumping with no effort to properly address the chemicals and refrigerant results in those same chemicals leaching into landfills and other areas.

Focus on Valuable Goods Causes Durable Goods to Go Unrecycled

If appliances aren’t able to be resold, they often times are sent to scrap and salvage operations, where they are recycled only enough to recover valuable materials metals are extracted, but durable materials such as glass and plastics are only shredded and still dumped. Many companies consider this to be sufficient for purposes of recycling, when much more is possible to minimize the amount of material landfilled.

Energy Consumption Inefficiencies and GHG Emissions Due to Resale of Used Appliances

Local disposal programs are often times contracted out to organizations who refurbish and resell roughly 25% of disposed appliances. While this can be good in some situations, extending the functional life of appliances that are inefficient in power consumption can be damaging and wasteful to the energy grid, and in some cases old equipment will leak and result in contaminants reaching the atmosphere.

True Recycling for a Greener Earth

It’s important to find vendors that truly follow proper recycling techniques for electronics and appliances in order to minimize the environmental impact breaking these products can have. Rather than offloading materials to oversees operations or refurbishing and reselling equipment that should never make it back onto the market, 1 Green Planet handles all recycling projects on-site, and thoroughly and properly breaks down all of the equipment it accepts according to regulatory requirements. Contact 1 Green Planet for all of your appliance recycling needs and do what you can to make an impact.