June 2004

Appliance Recycling Centers of America Receives Award for Refrigerator Recycling Program

Minneapolis, MN— Appliance Recycling Centers of America, Inc. announced that it and Southern California Edison Company (SCE) jointly received a Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ARCA and SCE, which were among 29 recipients worldwide recognized for their efforts in protecting the earth’s climate and ozone layer, were honored for recovering 23 tons of ozone-depleting materials through SCE’s residential refrigerator and freezer recycling program. Since 1994, ARCA has recycled more than 400,000 inefficient refrigerators and freezers in support of the SCE program.

Through SCE’s residential appliance recycling program, customers are paid to turn in their unwanted, working refrigerators or freezers. ARCA hauls away the old appliances at no cost to the customer and recycles the units, using a special process at its Compton, California, facility to recover chlorofluorocarbons from polyurethane foam insulation that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere. The recovered material is then used to service refrigeration equipment.

Since older, less-efficient appliances use more energy to operate than newer, ENERGY STAR(R)-rated appliances, the use of energy-efficient appliances can significantly reduce California’s need to build new power plants and have a significant impact on California’s energy conservation efforts.