Appliance Recycling

Appliance-recycling programs are available in many Canadian communities; consult your Yellow Pages or call your municipality to find out what programs exist and how appliances are collected. Ask if CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) are removed before appliances are crushed for recycling. CFCs are the gases that cool refrigerators and freezers. If not recovered properly, CFCs escape and damage the atmosphere's ozone layer.

Make sure you remove the door from your old appliance before you send it for recycling or take it out of service. Old-fashioned (pre-1957) refrigerators with mechanical latches have virtually disappeared from daily use, but units still in service remain a potentially fatal safety hazard to curious children and animals.