Running for over three years, the NSW Fridge Buyback program has clocked up some impressive statistics in refrigerant recovery and metal recycling, as Phillip Ross reports.
Fridge Buyback is an award-winning energy efficiency service targeting old second fridges commonly kept in garages, laundries and sheds across many parts of NSW.
The scheme, funded by the NSW government, aims to save residents money on their ever-rising electricity bills while making a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion.
Householders who have a second fridge still working can contact the scheme operators who will check that the unit is eligible. Participating residents receive a $35 rebate and free convenient removal by professional removalists. Residents’ power bills benefit with a reduction of an average $265 per year (on an average of 1MWhr/yr savings in energy).
It is the first service of its kind in Australia and currently operates across 48 NSW councils. The award-winning program was recently extended for another year with up to $1.5 million from the NSW government’s Climate Change Fund.
Fridge Buyback is coordinated by Next Energy in partnership with local councils.
While the focus of Fridge Buyback is on energy efficiency via the Climate Change Fund, the program has also made significant strides in the area of refrigerant recovery, primarily of CFCs from 10-year old fridges. Fridge Buyback is believed to be the only group in Australia that is professionally degassing domestic fridges.
A pilot program began in August 2006 and the full service launched in August 2008. Its statistics are impressive: it has collected more than 30,000 fridges, saved residents more than $8 million per year on power bills, avoided an estimated 30,000 tonnes annually of greenhouse gas emissions (or 245,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the estimated remaining average fridge life of eight years), recycled more than 2600 tonnes of steel and copper in the fridges, and recovered and safely destroyed more than 2600kg of used refrigerant.
Australians are amongst the biggest owners of second fridges in the world; according to ABS statistics and surveys 40 per cent of detached homes have a second fridge. Old fridges can use up to three times the energy of a modern energy efficient fridge and many second fridges, while plugged in all the time, are seldom used to full capacity.
As Fridge Buyback can only collect fridges that are at least 10 years old, the vast majority of the fridges it collects contain the phased-out refrigerant R12.
A custom-made multi-fridge degassing unit was designed to safely and efficiently degas up to seven fridges simultaneously. The equipment was designed and built by Stareast International’s Alan Nowfal in conjunction with Andrew Hawley of CFC Degassing. Both Stareast and CFC Degassing were selected following consultation with the Australian
Institute of Refrigeration, Air conditioning and Heating (AIRAH).
Stareast provides ongoing training and technical support to the program, which was designed and is independently reviewed by senior TAFE lecturer Ian Paul.
The refrigerant recovery is undertaken by KK Technical Services to Australian Refrigeration Council requirements with all personnel involved licensed by the ARC to degas only.
All refrigerant is recovered into a recovery cylinder and then accepted by Heatcraft, which ships it to Melbourne for safe destruction by Refrigerant Reclaim Australia. Heatcraft provides monthly reporting to the Fridge Buyback program on total refrigerant recovered and safely destroyed.
One Steel collects the degassed fridges to recycle the steel and copper where possible.
By targeting inefficient older fridges and permanently removing them from the electricity network, the scheme makes it easy for NSW households to participate in reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, at the lowest possible cost.
To be eligible for the program, the second fridge must be in regular use, at least 10 years old and at least 250 litres in size or greater. Collection is free, with the $35 rebate paid depending on ease of access to the fridge by the collectors.