Fridge recycling project is offered

Friday, April 16, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.

Nevada Power Co. and a refrigerator recycling company are teaming up in Las Vegas on Saturday to help recycle old refrigerators and replace them with energy-efficient models.

The announcement comes as scientists announced that the ozone hole is growing bigger for the first time in 11 years.

Safe disposal and recycling of refrigerators has the potential to slow, stop or reverse the ozone destruction, Michael Dunham, director of energy and environmental programs for JACO Environmental of Seattle.

An average refrigerator contains one to two pounds of foam insulation. Unless the foam is disposed of carefully, thousands of tons of chlorofluorocarbons, the chemicals that destroy the ozone that protects Earth from harmful radiation, are released, Dunham said.

With 8 million refrigerators and freezers replaced each year in the United States, old appliances may release thousands of tons of ozone-eating chemicals, Dunham said.

In addition, mercury switches and capacitators containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) release toxins into the environment from an old refrigerator stored in a garage, JACO spokesman Gary Zavoral said.

The refrigerator recycling program rewards customers who allow JACO to pick up an old one and replace it with an energy-efficient appliance, said Bob Balzar, director of Nevada Power conservation programs.

"The refrigerator recycling program rewards customers who allow us to transport old, energy-hogging refrigerators to state-of-the-art recycling centers and motivates them to purchase newer, more efficient models," Bazlar said.

If every household in the United States swapped ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators for old models, it would save enough energy to light all 225,000 homes in Washington, D.C., for 46 years, recycling advocates say.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has awarded JACO its 2004 Stratospheric Ozone Protection award and Nevada Power an ENERGY STAR award for 2004.

The replacement program begins with a demonstration of the recycling process at the Summerlin Earthfaire on Saturday at the Summerlin Centre Community Park, 1800 Town Center Drive.

For more information or to schedule a pickup, call Nevada Power at 367-5555 and press 4, then 2.