There is now a local place to take fridges, freezers, dehumidifiers, heat pumps and air conditioners that no longer work.
Whangaparāoa Community Recycling Centre in Whangaparāoa Road began accepting these items last December.
There is a charge for the new service of $45. This is what it costs Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste, which runs the recycling centre, to transport the items to the Devonport Community Recycling Centre, where they will be degassed.
Betsy Kettle of Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste says recycling refrigerators correctly, which includes degassing them, is important in the fight against climate change.
She says that according to the book Drawdown the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken, it is vital to correctly capture the refrigerant gases from used appliances.
The book says that even though chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons were banned in 1987 due to their effect on the ozone hole, their replacement gas, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) is estimated to be between 1000 and 9000 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.
If people have refrigerators that they are unable to move by themselves, to arraange collection phone Betsy on 021 0826 8196.
