What is a refrigerator and how does one works

Refrigerators are appliances that allow us to keep our foods and beverages cold and are some of the most important electronic devices that we have in our household, making it easier for us to feed ourselves. Similar to the air conditioners that we recently wrote about in this article, they work by cooling down the air inside them, although the technology is a little different.

Using a compressor, a refrigerator heats up the refrigerant, turning it from liquid to gas. The refrigerant then circulates through evaporators, found on the side of a refrigerator, which complete the heat exchange process, cooling down the inside of a fridge and heating up its sides. This is why if you feel the sides of a fridge become warm when it's in use.

The condenser, located at the back of the fridge, has the role to collect the refrigerant, once it turns back into liquid form, following the cooling of the unit. There are several other components, such as the capillary tube, which regulates the pressure inside the refrigerator as the coolant switches from liquid to gas and vice versa, as well as a thermostat, which keeps the temperature stable.

By keeping the temperature low, refrigerators enable us to keep foods like fruits, vegetables and meats cold and thus, prevent them from spoiling, which allowed for cooking to become more mainstream. This is also how some foods increased their lifespan from a few days to even weeks.

How refrigerators are recycled

When sent in for recycling, it's important that the refrigerator is undamaged or missing important components, such as the coolant. When upgrading your refrigerator, you should also make sure that the old one can be taken by the electronics company from which you purchased the new one or by a third-party electronics recycler.

It's important that you don't remove any of the critical components from a refrigerator, such as the compressor, condenser or the refrigerant, or else the collectors might not accept that device. Some require every bit of the old fridge when taking it away. One of the main reasons is that the coolant, for example, can pose a great danger for the environment, as it is a potent greenhouse gas, which can damage the local environment and even the ozone layer, if disposed of improperly.

In Romania there are a number of companies specialized in recycling electronics that can take your old fridge for reprocessing, such as Environ or GreenWEEE.

Some of the components that refrigerators contain, besides the freon, are aluminum, plastic, glass and copper. Older models even used stainless steel for shelves inside or the handles, but these days, that's pretty much only a distant memory.

GreenWEEE told Green Start-Up that recycling is the safest solution when an electric device, such as a refrigerator, is no longer functioning properly or when it can't be passed to someone else.

The company specialized in recycling told us that among the most dangerous substances found within electronic devices are cadmium, lead, nickel and mercury, as these elements can pollute the soil and release gases that damage the ecosystems.

GreenWEEE is Green Group's subsidiary specialized in recycling electric and electronic devices, one of the largest such companies in our country, which uses complex and modern machinery, recovering second-life raw materials. Through the recycling processes that GreenWEEE employs, the company is able to save as much as 98% of the components that make up electric devices, offering the recovered materials to various players in different industries for repurposing.

We've been at the company's facility in Buzău where various electronics and appliances, like refrigerators, are being recycled. Annually, one million fridges are being reprocessed by GreenWEEE.

According to company officials, one of the most difficult processes in recycling a refrigerator is managing the refrigerants and the oils from the compressor. "The substances must be carefully handled using specialized machinery to prevent their release in the atmosphere, given the negative impact they have on the ozone layer and their contribution to the greenhouse effect."

Once the freon is extracted from the fridge, the device is being grinded mechanically and the internal components are being separated through the use of airflow or magnets.

What can we make from recycled refrigerators

As far as the freon is concerned, the substance is being kept in a controlled environment until they are completely neutralized. Since permanent storage is not an option, due to leaking risks, they are destroyed through a controlled thermal process to ensure there's no negative impact on the environment.

Refrigerators also contain other elements, such as insulation foam or rubber bands, meant to keep the cold air inside. While these are difficult to recycle, it's not impossible to do so and GreenWEEE employs specialized equipment that "recovers the foam, decontaminates it and once the freon is being removed, the foam is turned in pellets, which are then used by cement manufacturers as alternative fuels."

The iron recovered from refrigerators is often used in the automotive industry, GreenWEEE told us, and the company's customers makes engine blocks from recycled iron, while the copper and aluminum are being employed in manufacturing heaters. Plastic is used for producing various plastic-based products, so refrigerators can be an excellent source of second-life materials for many products and sectors.

Now that you learned about recycling refrigerators, it's time to enjoy a nice leftover meal or maybe an ice cream from the freezer.