Picking up old refrigerators and freezers for Clark Public Utilities and recycling them seems like an easy job, but it ain’t so. Each year, Bob Critchfield, owner of CFC Recycling Inc., says his company picks up hundreds, and the number isn’t declining. He has been in the recycling business about seven years.
The service is free, and the utility will add a $20 credit to your bill. Those interested in taking part are asked to call Clark Public Utilities (360-992-3000) first to schedule the pickup and get instructions. Critchfield asks anyone recycling a freezer or refrigerator to put the door side against a building when it’s put out for pickup. This prevents children who otherwise might carelessly climb in and trap themselves from getting inside. It also makes for quick loading onto the CFC truck.
However, not all pickups run like clockwork. Sometimes, they get nasty.
“People are required to clean out their freezers and iceboxes in preparation for pickup,” Critchfield said. “If they don’t, we find a stinky mess, especially during the summer.”
When his drivers find one of these stinkers, he calls the customer and asks them to clean the icebox before arranging a new pickup date.
Occasionally, pickups get labor intensive, thanks to ill-planned home improvement projects. Now and then, Critchfield finds a homeowner who has built a room or basement man cave around a freezer or refrigerator. Then when he comes to pick up the appliance, it won’t fit through the door.
“I remove what I can, and then I have to get out the Sawzall and cut chunks that fit through the door,” he said.
Even after Critchfield carts the appliance– or its pieces — away and enters the pickup on a sheet so the utility customer will get the $20 credit, there’s still much work to do. His employees must part out the appliance and recycle it as scrap. Following the decommissioning guidelines from Clark Public Utilities, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state, his employees drain all of the appliance’s fluids, and remove and store any toxic solutions.
Lately, the scrap business has gotten a bit tougher. In 2015, the prices for many scrap metals fell. Because scrap is a commodity, the economics affecting it should be supply and demand. To some extent, that is correct, but it’s also only part of the economic equation. As prices fall, anyone holding a commodity who bought it at a high price wants to wait for an even higher price to make a profit on their money. When they hold what they have, this takes scrap metal off the market and promotes the manufacture of metals to fill the demand.
In recent years, the health of the Chinese economy has affected the scrap metal market. China not only buys scrap metal from the United States, but also sells other metals, especially aluminum, back to the U.S. Right now, China’s wobbly economy is affecting not just stock markets worldwide, but commodity markets, too.
Old equals less efficient
Many homes still contain watt-hungry, 20-year old fridges or freezers, often for secondary food storage in a garage or basement. From a power-saving perspective, recycling these machines gets them out of service permanently before they find their way onto Craigslist for resale, or into a friend or neighbor’s garage for another life. These old fridges and freezers might still keep things cold, but they cost much more to use than a newer, Energy Star equivalent. The savings can add up. To schedule your appliance pickup and gain a $20 power bill credit, call 360-992-3000.
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98668.
