Appliance recycling

Appliance recycling consists of dismantling waste home appliances and scrapping their parts for reuse. Recycling appliances for their original or other purposes, involves disassembly, removal of hazardous components and destruction of the end-of-life equipment to recover materials, generally by shredding, sorting and grading. The rate at which appliances are discarded has increased with technological advancement. This correlation directly leads to the question of appropriate disposal. The main types of appliances that are recycled are televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and computers. When appliances are recycled, they can be looked upon as valuable resources. If disposed of improperly, appliances can become environmentally harmful and poison ecosystems.

The strength of appliance recycling legislation varies around the world.

For example recycling one refrigerator can save 10 pounds of foam insulation, and 300,000 btus of energy

A key part of appliance recycling is the manual dismantling of each product. The disassembly removes hazardous components, while sorting out reusable parts. Procedures vary from one appliance to the other. The amount of hazardous components able to be removed also depends on the type of appliance. Low removal rates of hazardous components reduce the recyclability of valuable materials. Each type of appliance has its own set of characteristics and components. This makes characterization of appliances essential to sorting and separating parts. Research on appliance dismantling has become an active area, intending to help recycling reach maximum efficiency.

There is a certain process used to recover materials from appliances. Parts are generally removed in order from largest to smallest. Metals are extracted first and then plastics. Materials are sorted by either size, shape, or density. Sizing is a good means of sorting to quicken future processing. It also classifies fractions that show composition. Materials report to larger or finer fractions based on original dimension, toughness, or brittleness. Shape classification contributes to the dynamics of the material. Classification by density is important when it comes to determining the use of a material.

Batteries and copper are sorted out first for quality control purposes. The materials are then compacted. Next, iron and steel (ferrous metals) are extracted using electromagnets. They are collected and made ready for sale. Then metals are separated from non-metals using eddy currents. Eddy currents are created by rapidly alternating magnetic fields, which induce metals to jump away from non-metals. Then water separation is used to sort plastics and glass from circuit boards and copper wires. Circuit boards and copper content is then sold. Plastics and glass are further compacted for reuse.

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Wikipedia