Old fridges and freezers wanted
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, October 23, 2004
Snohomish County PUD will pay you $35 to recycle your old, inefficient refrigerator, saving you money while keeping tons of global warming pollutants out of the atmosphere.
Even better, they’ll have someone pick it up at your house. Starting Monday, you call 1-877-577-0510 for an appointment.
The utility has decided to reduce electricity usage by paying customers to get rid of refrigerators and freezers that can use three times as much electricity as modern units.
There are up to 33,000 refrigerators and freezers in the county that should be recycled, many of them little-used second units, said Bob Nicholas, the PUD’s manager of product development.
If they were all recycled, it would keep the utility’s 163,000 residential customers from burning through 33 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to keep the lights on in 2,500 homes.
The PUD will spend $134,000 to have JACO Environmental of Everett pick up 1,000 refrigerators between now and the end of the year. If the program works, it could become permanent.
JACO Environmental will pick up the refrigerators and disassemble them at its plant in Portland, Ore., said Michael Jacobsen, the company’s controller and brother to owner Terry Jacobsen.
Recycling the units keeps a family of carbon dioxide-causing compounds called chlorofluorocarbons from getting into the air. Commonly called CFCs, such compounds are found in the coolant and insulation used in refrigerators more than 10 years old.
Most scientists believe the chemicals contribute to global warming. Each refrigerator recycled keeps the equivalent of 2.3 tons of carbon dioxide out of the air.
Mercury and PCBs found in old refrigerators also are recycled.
“Our process removes over 90 percent of the pollutants,” Jacobsen said.
Todd Peterson of Everett said he is convinced.
“People probably don’t realize how much they’re going to save,” Peterson said, adding that he will call JACO Environmental first thing Monday. “It’s a no-brainer, especially when you’re doing it for the environment.”
