Appliance Recycling

The Appliance Recycling Information Center (ARIC)

In 1993, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) announced the establishment of the Appliance Recycling Information Center (ARIC). The mission of this center is to serve as the authoritative source of information on the environmentally responsible disposal and recycling of appliances and to undertake research into the recycling of major household appliances. ARIC focuses its activities in two main areas: Industry Coordination and Information and Education. 

Industry Coordination
In 1994, the Major Appliance Resource Management Alliance (MARMA) was founded to expand on ARIC's mission of increasing the recycling rate of major home appliances.  This Alliance is comprised of representatives from the major appliance industry, steel recycling industry, plastics council, and scrap recyclers to discuss the formation of a resource management alliance. The 2004, 92% of the steel in Major Appliances was recycled.

Information & Education
ARIC will develop and make available the most accurate technical data about appliance disposal and recycling, including advances in appliance recycling technology.

AHAM is also a co-sponsor with the Steel Recycling Institute of the Recycling Information Center, a toll free number that consumers can call for information on product recycling, including the recycling of major appliances. If your constituents have questions on recycling, they can call 1-800-YES-1-CAN to reach recorded messages and ask questions of live operators.

Major home appliances, often referred to collectively as "white goods," have long useful lives, typically 10 to 18 years. When they finally reach the end of these lives and are replaced, major appliances take on new value as an important manufacturing raw material- scrap steel for instance.

Did you know that discarded appliances are second to only old automobiles as a source of recycled metals, particularly steel? Using recycled steel has a positive impact on the environment, since it takes four times as much energy to manufacture steel from virgin ore as it does to make the same steel from recycled scrap.

Steel is the most abundant recyclable component in appliances, but not the only one. Major home appliances, or "white goods," also contain other metals like aluminum and copper, as well as recyclable plastics and CFC refrigerants.

Appliance Recycling Research
In 2005 AHAM is conducting two research projects with R. W. Beck and Weston Solutions to investigate major appliance and portable/floor care appliance recycling.  These studies will focus on material flow through the recycling infrastructure, material content and age of appliances at end of life.

• INFOBulletin #6 - MARMA Characterization Study of Appliance Recycling The Appliance Recycling Information Center (ARIC) and the Major Appliance Resource Management Alliance (MARMA), have conducted an appliance recycling characterization study project through Franklin Associates, Ltd., a well-known environmental consulting agency. This research project has collated...  more...

• INFOBulletin #7 - Major Home Appliance Saturation and Length of First Ownership AHAM Research Study 2001 - The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers conducts a study approximately every five years into the ownership trends of home appliances. This data may assist in recycling program planning as well as showing the trends of appliance use and disposal.  more...

• INFOBulletin #8 - Mercury in Home Appliances Mercury is a naturally occurring element found in soils and minerals but it is regulated as an environmental pollutant. The attention recently directed toward mercury has led to questions of whether major home appliances are made with mercury-containing components.  more...

• INFOBulletin #5 - Major Appliances and PCB Small Capacitors A small number of major home appliances, primarily room air conditioners and microwave ovens, manufactured before 1979 contained capacitors made with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Most capacitors contained such small quantities of PCBs that they were not directly regulated by the U.S....  more...

• INFOBulletin #4 - Refrigerant Recovery Rules for Major Home Appliances Chemicals know as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are used in refrigeration and cooling equipment of all kinds. Household refrigerators and freezers use CFC-12 (also known as R-12 and Freon, a brand name) as a refrigerant; dehumidifiers and room air conditioners use...  more...

• INFOBulletin #2 - Average Ferrous Content of Major Home Appliances This information is based on a tear-down study commissioned by the ARIC and the Major Appliance Resource Management Alliance (MARMA) in 1997. It is based on deconstruction of several new appliances built in that year.  more...

• INFOBulletin #3 - State White Goods Disposal Laws Laws by State Published June 2001  more...

• INFOBulletin #1 - Recycling Major Home Appliances The Average American family owns half a dozen major appliances. Nearly every household has a refrigerator and range. More than 90% own clothes washers and dryers. Many have dishwashers, microwave ovens, freezers or dehumidifiers. US manufacturers ship nearly 65 million major home appliances...  more...

Copyright © 1996 - 2008 · Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers · All rights reserved.