How You Discard Your Air Conditioner Affects the Environment

The ozone layer is our natural protection against the harmful ultraviolet radiation of the sun. A hole in the ozone was discovered over Antarctica in 1985. The ozone over the North Pole was also discovered to be depleting. Refrigerators, window and car air conditioners, and dehumidifiers rely on refrigerants that contain ozone depleting CFCs and HCFCs, also known as Freon. Ozone depletion means more exposure to higher levels of ultraviolet-B (UVB) rays, posing serious threats to human, animal and plant life.

Air conditioners are made with steel and plastic which are highly recyclable. In fact, 90% of all steel from appliances is recycled according to the Appliance Recycling Consortium. Before you try to recycle your air conditioner, you should take some steps to ensure that the coolants, which can cause ozone depletion, are not released into the air:

1. Contact the public works department in your town or county and ask about home appliance recycling or CFC/HFCF recovery programs. Refrigerant recovery machines draw the refrigerant from your appliance into a holding tank. Refrigerant is purified and sold for reuse and the appliance is recycled or discarded without harming the ozone layer.

2. Ask local home appliance retailers about their refrigerator and home appliance collection programs or about the availability of refrigerant-recovery programs.

3. Inform your local hauler or service person about the ozone problems and the law. As of July 1, 1992, refrigerants must be recovered from appliances before disposal. Per the Clean Air Act, the release of refrigerants into the atmosphere during service, maintenance, or disposal is prohibited. The EPA is authorized to assess fines of up to 25,000 per day per violation of the Act.
4. Avoid trying to recover the refrigerant yourself. Only qualified professionals with proper equipment should recover refrigerants (or any other pressurized gas).

5. Be prepared for a possible increase in appliance collection costs. You could consider the extra cost a contribution to protect the ozone layer.

Sometimes it is not quite necessary to discard your air conditioners. The National Association of Home Builders says that room air conditioners typically last about ten years on average. They are usually simple and cost effective to repair. Repairing units more than twenty years old, especially units manufactured before 1979 (when the first state efficiency standards went into effect) can cut your cooling bill in half.

For a central air conditioning system, if all of the other components are in good condition, a compressor change-out can give the system another 5-20 years of operational life. It also can increase the efficiency of the unit. Sometimes, though, it makes more sense to buy a new unit than repair a broken one. When it is time to replace the outdoor unit (condenser), the entire system should be replaced as a packaged with a new evaporator. This is even more critical with heat pumps and high efficiency equipment. If this is not done it could impact the reliability and performance.