About Home Appliance Recycling
Homeowners spend a good deal of money on each new appliance they purchase. These major appliance expenses though also come with an expectation that they will live long useful lives, anywhere from 10 to 18 years. For most people, the first few years of using and “new” major appliance such as a refrigerator, water heater, air conditioner, and washer-dryer are usually trouble free. But these appliances get constant use and often times are subjected to a lack of maintenance which can shorten their life span considerably.
When this happens, an appliance parts replacements company can become your best friend. You may not need an entirely new dryer. You may just need a new dryer door handle or something similar. The same goes for your dishwasher, your air conditioning unit or your trusty refrigerator. Look into replacing parts on your appliance before deciding that it is times up for the appliance.
But once you have already held onto your appliance for a long time, and survived through several parts replacements on your appliances, there will come a time that you’ll have to move the old appliance out of the home. And that’s when it makes sense to recycle your home appliances.
Local Recycling
Discarded appliances are a great source for recycled metals, particularly steel. Steel is the most common recyclable metal in home appliances, but other metals like aluminum and copper, as well as recyclable plastics and CFC refrigerants, get recycled and can be used again. Recycling your home appliance can make a positive impact on your local environment.
So do not just throw it into the trash bin for pickup. Recycling your appliance can take some extra work, but there are industry practices in place for this. According to ARIC (Appliance Recycling Information Center), there are more than 11,000 thousand local appliance recycling locations in the United States. Finding and using your local recycling center for your used home appliance can be beneficial to the environment in several ways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency:
- 97% reduction in mining wastes to use new steel
- 90% savings in virgin materials use
- 86% less air pollution
- 76% less water pollution
- 74% energy savings
Look in your home cities for recycling facilities. For example, Mesa, Arizona offers its residents a curbside appliance recycling program. There is a charge per appliance in this particular program, so check in your area for similar requirements.
In this age of increasing impact for just about everything, it is a homeowners’ responsibility to help to minimize the harmful impact that our actions can have on the planet. Recycling your home appliance at the end of its timeline can have a positive impression on our world.
