Clean out the fridge: Recycle instead

Friday, April 18, 2003 | 3:33 a.m.

You just didn't have the heart -- or maybe the inclination -- to get rid of that old refrigerator when you bought a new one several years ago, so you stuck it in your garage, plugged it in and used it to keep cases of soda cold.

The money you've spent on electricity for that old fridge could have paid for a new, energy-efficient one.

"A typical refrigerator/freezer, 10 years or older, costs a typical residential customer $150 to $200 per year to run," said John Hargrove, energy conservation specialist with Nevada Power Co. "A new refrigerator goes for about $1,000 and costs about $40 to $50 a year to run."

On Monday, Nevada Power kicks off its first energy-inefficient refrigerator recycling program in Southern Nevada. The power company will pick up old refrigerators of at least 10 cubic feet and send consumers a $30 rebate within four weeks. A maximum of two fridges per house will be accepted.

Nevada Power will then have the refrigerator parts recycled to help manufacture new products. Hargrove said the plastic lining, for example, is retooled by automakers to use as the trays in which headlights are mounted.

"Our purpose to conserve energy would have ended with just paying people the $30," Hargrove said. "Instead, by recycling, we also are keeping these old units out of landfills and from being abandoned in the desert.

"This program primarily is for secondary units -- the ones people put in their garages just to keep their sodas cold or for other limited uses. It's not intended to take people's primary refrigerator."

Hargrove said a number of the secondary units are kept in garages that get real hot in the desert summer, run twice as hard than under normal use and thus use even more electricity than under normal kitchen conditions.

The program, which is funded by the utility's regular budget with no federal or other government funding, is designed to rid Southern Nevada of as many as 3,500 older model refrigerators.