America’s first drive directly linking refrigerator recycling to the purchase of more energy-efficient refrigerators kicks off Earth Week on Saturday, April 17, when JACO Environmental, in partnership with Nevada Power, launches a model program at an Earth Week fair in Las Vegas, Nev.
Under the new program, Nevada Power consumers who purchase new ENERGY STAR-qualified refrigerators will automatically qualify for free removal of their old refrigerator. If they accept the offer, they will receive $50 from Nevada Power. JACO will then remove consumers’ old refrigerators and recycle 90 percent of the units.
At the same time, JACO will safely dispose of toxins and ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbon gases from foam insulation, called CFC-11. This process is so thorough and safe that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored JACO this month with an international Stratospheric Ozone Protection Awards for 2004.
“This award to JACO Environmental is in recognition of the exceptional contributions for global environmental protections,” said EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt, former governor of Utah.
The partnership between JACO and Nevada Power gives people the power to save the environment in two significant ways — by conserving energy and reducing the strain on power supplies, and by preventing further damage to the environment by properly retiring old refrigerators.
Organizers hope the effort will catch on across the nation, where millions of old refrigerators could speed up destruction of the ozone layer if not properly recycled. Currently, most people buy new refrigerators but hang onto their old ones. These inefficient, energy-sucking units usually end up in a garage where they become storage for a few cans of soda or some frozen dinners. They also become environmental time bombs, because refrigerators become miniature toxic waste sites when disposed of improperly. Mercury switches and capacitors containing PCBs leak toxins — but those are minor impacts compared to the foam insulation inside the walls of the refrigerators.
Typically refrigerators and freezers are sent to metal recycling yards, where they are shredded and there is an outgasing of the CFC-11. This releases chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere, where they accelerate destruction of the protective ozone layer. In fact, the ozone hole over Antarctica is now expanding for the first time in 11 years, an ominous development that threatens to cause irreversible harm to the environment and to world health.
The safe disposal of refrigerators promises to slow, stop or even reverse ozone destruction, and the numbers clearly illustrate this potential. An average refrigerator contains about a pound to two pounds of foam insulation. In the U.S. alone, 8 million refrigerators and freezers reach the end of their functional life span each year. Unless they are properly disposed of, foam and refrigerant from these old appliances release thousands of tons of ozone-eating CFC-11 into the atmosphere each year.
“Refrigerator recycling offers enormous potential in preventing even more damage to the ozone layer,” said Michael Dunham, director of Energy and Environmental Programs for JACO Environmental. “The ozone hole belongs to a class of environmental threats where the danger simply cannot be understated. The program we are implementing in Nevada, if adopted throughout the country, could mark a historic turn in protecting our environment.”
Established 15 years ago in Seattle, JACO Environmental has since grown into one of the largest recyclers of household appliances in the United States with operations in four states and in seven major Western markets.
Visitors to the Summerlin Earthfaire, cosponsored by the EPA, can view a demonstration of the recycling process at a booth sponsored by JACO and Nevada Power. It is being held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 17, at the Summerlin Centre Community Park, 1800 Town Center Drive in west Las Vegas.