Easing the chill: years of experience and increased knowledge can help lessen the environmental risks of recycling refrigerators and air conditioners.

Freon and other refrigerants are a critical part of what allows North Americans to maintain food at safe temperatures as well as cool their homes and offices during the summer.

But expired refrigerants are an unwelcome additive to soil, streams and groundwater sources, as recyclers who handle appliances have become well aware during the past several decades.

Despite the perils of handling Freon (and some newer substitute refrigerants), recyclers still can capably handle the stream of end-of-life refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners and ensure the metals find a home in a mill or foundry.

HOT TIME. This decade's housing boom has been accompanied to some extent by an appliance boom, as most new homes also come equipped with an array of appliances.

Before 2006 is over, Americans are expected to buy more than 11.6 million new refrigerators, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), Washington.

That figure represents the ninth consecutive year of growing unit sales, and the overall growth during that span has been significant. In 1997, the year before the streak started, less than 8 million refrigerators were purchased by Americans.

Figures for freezers and room air conditioners show similar growth patterns. Less than 1.5 million freezers were sold in 1997, but more than 2.5 million were sold each year between 2002 and 2004. (The freezer market took a dip in 2005 and is now closer to 2.2 million.)

Room air conditioner sales growth is even more impressive, according to AHAM. Unit sales numbered 3.8 million in 1997, compared to some 9.5 million units expected to be sold this year.

Not in every case has a new refrigerator, freezer or air conditioner replaced an old unit, but many transactions involve an appliance store or installer removing an old unit for reconditioning or recycling.

Scrap recyclers have managed the end-of-life stream well, judging by the 90 percent appliance recycling rate calculated by the Steel Recycling Institute for 2005. That rate represents a giant leap from the 20 percent rate calculated for 1989.

Along with potential profits for recyclers handling refrigerators or air conditioners, however, come the responsibilities of adhering to regulations that, while usually formulated and enforced by individual states, have often been designed to adhere to Section 608 of the Clean Air Act of 1990, which is managed nationally by the U.S. EPA.

KEEP IT CLEAN. That far-reaching act includes rules intended to apply specifically to refrigerant recyclers and re-conditioners of refrigerators and air conditioners. According to the U.S. EPA Web site, Section 608 "requires that persons servicing or disposing of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment certify to the appropriate EPA Regional Office that they have acquired (built, bought or leased) recovery or recycling equipment and that they are complying with the applicable requirements of this rule. This certification must be signed by the owner of the equipment or another responsible officer and sent to the appropriate EPA Regional Office."

Scrap recyclers are also specifically addressed within Section 608. "Under EPA's rule, equipment that is typically dismantled on-site before disposal (e.g., retail food refrigeration, central residential air conditioning, chillers and industrial process refrigeration) has to have the refrigerant recovered in accordance with EPA's requirements for servicing. However, equipment that typically enters the waste stream with the charge intact (e.g., motor vehicle air conditioners, household refrigerators and freezers and room air conditioners) is subject to special safe disposal requirements," the EPA notes.

"Under these requirements, the final person in the disposal chain (e.g., a scrap metal recycler or landfill owner) is responsible for ensuring that refrigerant is recovered from equipment before the final disposal of the equipment. However, persons 'upstream' can remove the refrigerant and provide documentation of its removal to the final person if this is more cost-effective," the EPA informs recyclers.

Recyclers have another option, according to the agency, but proper recordkeeping is critical. "If the final person in the disposal chain (e.g., a scrap metal recycler or landfill owner) accepts appliances that no longer hold a refrigerant charge, that person is responsible for maintaining a signed statement from whom the appliance(s) is being accepted. The signed statement must include the name and address of the person who recovered the refrigerant and the date that the refrigerant was recovered, or a copy of a contract stating that the refrigerant will be removed prior to delivery," the agency's summary of Section 608 notes.

Retaining such statements is critical to respond to regulatory scrutiny of how a scrap recycler is handling end-of-life refrigerators, freezers or air conditioners. The EPA has concluded that such recordkeeping is more important than using a sticker that will ultimately be shredded along with the appliance. "EPA does not mandate a sticker as a form of verification that the refrigerant has been removed prior to disposal of the appliance," the Web site notes. "Such stickers do not relieve the final disposer of their responsibility to recover any remaining refrigerant in the appliance, unless the sticker contains a signed statement that includes the name and address of the person who recovered the refrigerant, and the date that the refrigerant was recovered."

The safe disposal requirements went into effect in 1993, so scrap recycling companies with "institutional memory or scrap veterans on staff have probably become familiar with what the EPA requires.

Although many of the refrigerant regulations have filtered from the top down because of the Clean Air Act, the way states have asked recyclers to comply with the act and how resolutely they have enforced it can differ.

Approaches can include strict enforcement or incentives and multi-industry cooperative efforts to help ensure safe recycling.

In California, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Francisco, administers a program funded by the state that offers their customers $35 for their old refrigerators.

Austin Energy, a community-owned utility in Austin, Texas, offers the same $35 incentive and also opened its own collection center in 2005 operated in conjunction with Appliance Recycling Centers of America (ARCA), Minneapolis, Minn.

The collection center, housed in a 20,000-square-foot building, is equipped with 400 feet of conveyors as well as equipment for testing hazardous materials. The system is also designed to find components containing PCBs or mercury and to remove them for licensed disposal or recycling. All of the metal is separated and transported to a local metal processor for recycling.

Procuring scrap appliances from such facilities is one way for recyclers to help meet regulatory hurdles, but most recyclers are still asked to take in appliances from a variety of sources.

In such cases, recyclers can learn more at www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/ 608/608fact.html.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at [e-mail].