GE Partners with ARCA on Appliance Disposal Program

GE Appliances & Lighting has announced that it has become the first appliance manufacturer to partner with the Environmental Protection Agency on the agency’s Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program, which has been designed to help protect the ozone layer and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

GE notes that while 90 percent of used refrigerators in the United States are shredded, the remaining foam and other materials typically are landfilled. Also, during the shredding process, a substantial amount of GHG and ozone-depleting substance emissions are released into the atmosphere.

To combat this, GE has signed an agreement with Appliance Recycling Centers of America (ARCA) to supply used-appliance volume from a six-state region to ARCA Advanced Processing’s regional recycling center in Pennsylvania. ARCA is investing in appliance recycling technology from UNTHA Recycling Technology (URT) that recovers about 95 percent of the insulating foam in refrigerators. The facility is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2011.

“GE’s commitment to develop and deploy solutions to today’s environmental challenges is a top priority,” says James Campbell, GE Appliances & Lighting president and CEO. “We have made major investments in home energy management and supported aggressive energy-efficiency standards for appliances. Working with the EPA and ARCA on responsible appliance disposal is another great step forward in the spirit of GE’s ecomagination initiative.”

“GE and ARCA’s management of refrigerators, particularly the foam insulation, during the recycling process is innovative and raises the bar in the U.S. appliance industry,” says Drusilla Hufford, director of the EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division. “As the first appliance manufacturer to join EPA’s RAD Program, GE is demonstrating leadership by responsibly recycling appliances and reducing harmful emissions to help protect our planet.”

“ARCA prides itself on innovation,” says Jack Cameron, ARCA’s president and CEO. “The technology we’re investing in – a precise, sealed and fully-automated refrigerator recycling system – will be the first URT system in North America. With GE’s logistics expertise and customer relationships and ARCA’s investment in this leading-edge technology, this partnership is a game-changer for U.S. appliance recycling.”

The URT system includes the capability to automatically capture blowing agents such as chlorofluorocarbons, hydro chlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons and cyclopentane from the insulating foam.

“The potential of this technology is tremendous,” says Brian Conners, president and COO of ARCA Advanced Processing. “If the foam from the 9 million refrigerators disposed of annually in the U.S. were processed through this recycling technology, the greenhouse gas emissions avoided would be equivalent to the annual CO2-e emissions of more than 2.4 million cars on U.S. roads.”