Utilities to Pay Customers to Throw Out Old Refrigerators
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and Southern California Edison Co. hope to save energy by persuading customers to throw out the spare refrigerators lurking in thousands of Southern California garages.
The carrot: a $50 U.S. Savings Bond and substantially lower electric bills.
The electricity to chill a $1.50 six-pack of soda costs $2.50 a week using an older, inefficient, second fridge, the utilities say. Average savings from getting rid of a typical 14-year-old spare refrigerator are $144 a year, they estimate.
But the utilities also carry a stick. As of Jan. 1, it will be illegal to dump large appliances in California landfills without recycling the appliances’ materials--a task beyond the expertise of most homeowners.
The utilities plan to pick up refrigerators beginning Dec. 1 and to dismantle and recycle them at a new facility in Compton. Steel, copper, aluminum and even ozone-destroying CFCs will be recycled. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been linked to cancer and other ailments, will be destroyed.
The Compton facility, expected to create 115 jobs for local residents, will be operated by Appliance Recycling Centers of America, which already recycles refrigerators in Minneapolis; Hartford, Conn.; Green Bay, Wis., and four other North American cities.
Edison and DWP will spend $33 million to remove up to 237,000 old refrigerators in their combined service territories, saving a total of 683 million kilowatt-hours of electricity over the life of the three-year program--enough to power 114,000 typical California homes during that period.
In recent years, U.S. utilities have undertaken similar projects as part of a broader effort--known as demand-side management--to cut electricity use instead of building new power plants.
Recycling a Refrigerator
Key Points in the Southern California Edison-Department of Water and Power spare refrigerator recycling program:
* Only second refrigerators in continuous use for the previous six months qualify.
* Refrigerators must be residential, with a capacity of 10 to 26 cubic feet.
* For information or to request pickup, call (800) 234-9722. People with hearing impairments can call (800) 234-9710.
Hidden Waste
In Southern California, the average household uses 6,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. Because today’s more efficient refrigerators use less than half the power of models built 14 years ago--the average age of a second fridge--these older refrigerators can account for almost a quarter of a household’s electricity use.
Residential appliance use in Southern California
Spare refrigerator: 22%
Primary refrigerator: 10%
Freezer: 10%
Television: 5%
Pool pump: 5%
Air conditioner: 7%
Electric dryer: 4%
Other: 37%
Source: Southern California Edison Co.
