Proper disposal of old appliances

The US Environmental Protection Agency along with 8 partners have launched a new, voluntarily Responsible Appliance Disposal programme to promote environmentally responsible disposal of old refrigerators and freezers, ensuring that CFCs are captured and destroyed or recycled. Each year, approximately 13 million of these appliances are disposed of and many of these contain ozone-depleting CFCs, used as refrigerant or as a component in the insulation foam. The programme also aims at encouraging the retirement and proper disposal of older, "second" refrigerators which sometimes consume three or four times more energy than new units. About 23 million US households have secondary units in their basements or garages.