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Environmentally Responsible Appliance Recycling South San Francisco
Did you know that according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Americans threw away almost 5.3 million tons of old and broken down appliances in the year 2018 alone.
That amounts to an astounding 1.8 percent of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generation across the country. The EPA also states that amongst the discarded appliances that ended up in our nation´s landfills, “ferrous metals (steel and iron) are the predominant materials in major appliances, but different metals, plastics, glass and other materials are also present.”
Because most appliances have electronics built within them, appliances are also considered to be one source of electronic waste, or e-waste. The heavy metals, flame retardants, and other potentially toxic chemicals that are contained in e-waste make them especially dangerous once released into the environment.
Unfortunately, many people still don’t know that your broken toaster or old coffee machine simply should not be thrown out with the rest of the garbage. In fact, in the state of California it is actually illegal to throw your old TVs, computers, batteries and other used electronics and appliances into the trash.
So what exactly should you do with old appliances that no longer work? Instead of simply storing them in the garage or in a corner cupboard of your kitchen, Junk King of South San Francisco can help you safely, efficiently, and legally recycle all of your used appliances.
Why is E-Waste More Dangerous than Other types of Junk We Throw Away?
The appliances and electronic that we use are filled with several types of chemicals and other substances that can be extremely harmful to human health and the environment when leaching occurs in a landfill setting.
These chemicals include toxic metals, flame retardants, and persistent organic pollutants. One of the most dangerous contamination pathways is when e-waste at landfill sites contaminates water supply through leachate.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that e-waste contamination can lead to “to high levels of contaminants such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which can lead to irreversible health effects, including cancers, miscarriages, neurological damage and diminished IQs.” Thus, most city governments have strict policies that regulate how e-waste gets disposed.
San Francisco´s Public Works Departments clearly states that: “It is illegal to leave furniture, appliances, garbage bags, or anything on the sidewalk at any time unless you have a scheduled pick up from a licensed hauler or donation facility.”
The History of Recycling & How Environmental Responsibility is Changing
Unlike cheap plastic products that are increasingly hard to recycle, appliance recycling has long been one of the major success stories of the wider recycling industry. As a definition, appliance recycling refers to the process of dismantling waste home appliances and scrapping their parts for reuse.
Whereas this process used to be complex and time consuming, technological advancements in the recycling industry now allow recyclers to more effectively and efficiently extract the useful elements from your used televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, computers, and other electronics and appliances. According to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM):
“Home appliances are a recycling success story. Major appliances are recycled at a high rate, driven by the market value of the metals used in their manufacturing. Major home appliances, often referred to collectively as “white goods,” have long useful lives, typically 10 years or more. When they finally reach the end of these lives and are replaced, major appliances take on new value as an important manufacturing raw material, including as scrap steel.”
Alongside the advancements in appliance recycling technology, there is also an increasing sense of environmental responsibility amongst consumers. Whereas the vast majority of used and broken down appliances used to end up in landfills, one recent survey today found that 85 percent of people admitted to recycling on a regular basis. In the coming decade, the amount of e-waste that we produce on a yearly basis is expected to rise to almost 75 million tons.
In order to avoid serious contamination of our watersheds and soils, more and more people will need to continue to make the effort to ensure that their used appliances are properly recycled.
How Environmentally Responsible Appliance Recycling Works
At the end of their useful life, our electronics and appliances take on new value as an important manufacturing raw material. In larger appliances like used refrigerators, the ferrous metal materials generally +account for 40 to 60 percent of the product’s total weight, and all of that metal can theoretically be recycled.
Also, most appliances also contain generous amounts of other metals and recyclable materials, including copper, aluminum and plastics. Some appliances may even contain trace amounts of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and lithium.
Fortunately, environmentally friendly and eco-friendly recycling practices of appliances also tend to be economically profitable due to the high cost of those precious metals.
Environmental Responsibility in Your Home with Eco-Friendly Appliances
Any homeowner who has upgrades from a 20-year old refrigerator to a newer, more efficient model will tell you that newer appliances generally have much better energy efficiency ratings. In practicality, these eco-friendly home appliances can save you money while also significantly reducing your household´s carbon footprint.
To name just one example, today´s ENERGY STAR certified refrigerators use 70 percent less energy than refrigerators that were built in the 1970s. The same pattern arises with home heaters and air conditioners, kitchen appliances, electronics, and more.
Given these major energy efficiency gains, many environmentally conscious homeowners today are replacing their older appliances in order to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
When going through this process of appliance removal, however, it is extremely important to remember to recycle all of those appliances so that they don’t end up in our local landfills as a source of potentially toxic waste. Junk King of South San Francisco offers a practical and efficient way for homeowners and business owners to recycle all of their older, used appliances.
What are the Best Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in Everyday Life?
As we mentioned above, upgrading to more efficient appliances is a straightforward strategy for reducing your carbon footprint and is a foundational element of sustainable living methods. However, simply throwing those old appliances into the regular trash bin might actually be causing a larger problem for the environment.
If you don’t have a practical way to fix, donate, or otherwise dispose of your used appliances, consider calling Junk King of South San Francisco. We are proud to be the number one rated junk removal service, providing superior value, service and effort to the customers we serve. If you live in South San Francisco, Junk King can help you comply with recycling and trash removal laws and ordinances for all your sources of e-waste.
Junk King South San Francisco supports the recycling initiatives and ordinances that are helping to make San Francisco one of the greenest (if not the greenest) city in North America. We have several connections with certified recycling centers, donation and thrift shops, and other businesses to ensure that the used appliances and other sources of e-waste that we haul away gets a chance at “another life.”
For individuals, homeowners, and business owners located in Brisbane, Burlingame, Daly City, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Millbrae, Montara, Moss Beach, Pacifica, San Bruno, San Mateo, or other parts of South San Francisco, Junk King is the best junk removal company to help you efficiently and responsible get rid of your used or broken appliances. Unlike other junk removal services who simply drive your trash to the nearest landfill, we make a sincere effort to recycle or donate as much as possible.
Our mission is to ensure that at least 60 percent of all the trash and junk we collect at each site is either recycled, reused, or repurposed. Our company is here to ensure that individuals and businesses can get rid of their appliances while also having a positive impact on the environment and their local community.
The Upside: Almost All E-Waste is Recyclable
In recent years, cities and towns across the country have experienced an enormous difficulty in finding ways to sell or get rid of the recyclable materials that they pick up from individuals and businesses who dutifully separate their trash into the recycle containers. Part of this problem arises from the fact that China and other Asian countries have essentially stopped receiving shipments of low-grade plastic from the United States and the rest of the world.
In practice, this has meant that many municipal recycling services are stuck with an enormous amount of plastics and other recyclable materials that they simply cannot find a place to send it. Unfortunately, this has often forced municipal trash services to either landfill or incinerate the recyclable material that they collect.
In the specific case of e-waste, however, many of the electronic products that we use have extremely valuable metal components that are highly sought after in the recycling industry. Depending on the type of electronic product or appliance, your e-waste may contain precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium.
These precious metals command a much more competitive price than PET plastic, for example, and thus make recycling more lucrative for players within the recycling industry. According to one analysis, for every one million cell phones that are recycled, 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
Also, most appliances and electronic also contain high amounts of iron and aluminum, both of which have established recycling markets within North America.
Despite this fact, in 2019 only 17.4 percent of global e-waste was documented as properly recycled. The raw materials that were collected from global recycled e-waste were valued at $10 billion US dollars in 2019.
Improving the recycling rate of e-waste is thus one of the major environmental challenges that the junk removal industry faces today.
What Can You Do to Responsibly Get Rid of Your Used Appliances and Other Electronics?
It should be clear by now that simply throwing away that old toaster that no longer works properly comes at a serious environmental cost. But what exactly can you do when your old appliances stop working or need to be replaced by a more efficient, newer model?
- Repair or Refurbish: Firstly, making an effort to repair or refurbish the damaged appliance should be a high priority. Fortunately, several retailers and manufacturers are beginning to offer efficient and reasonably-priced repair services for the appliances that they sell. This service may be a part of an extended warranty that the company offers, or it may incur a slight cost. However, repairing a slightly damaged appliance is a great way to keep that e-waste out of landfills while also reducing demand for further resource extraction via new purchases.
- Donate to Someone in Need: For used appliances that are still functional (or only need minor repairs), consider donating the item to a friend, family member, or someone else in need. In South San Francisco, there are thousands of families that would be extremely grateful for a free or low-priced appliance for their homes. You might consider dropping off your used appliances at The Salvation Army, Goodwill, Remoov, or other donation centers located around the South San Francisco area.
- Work with the Best Junk Removal Company in the Area: Lastly, if you don’t have a practical way to fix, donate, or otherwise dispose of your used appliances, consider calling Junk King of South San Francisco. We are proud to be the number one rated junk removal service, providing superior value, service and effort to the customers we serve. If you live in South San Francisco, Junk King can help you comply with recycling and trash removal laws and ordinances for all your sources of e-waste. Junk King South San Francisco supports the recycling initiatives and ordinances that are helping to make San Francisco one of the greenest (if not the greenest) city in North America. We have several connections with certified appliance recycling South San Francisco centers, donation and thrift shops, and other businesses to ensure that the used appliances and other sources of e-waste that we haul away gets a chance at “another life.”
For individuals, homeowners, and business owners located in Brisbane, Burlingame, Daly City, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Millbrae, Montara, Moss Beach, Pacifica, San Bruno, San Mateo, or other parts of South San Francisco, Junk King is the best junk removal company to help you efficiently and responsible get rid of your used or broken appliances. Unlike other junk removal services who simply drive your trash to the nearest landfill, we make a sincere effort to recycle or donate as much as possible. Our mission is to ensure that at least 60 percent of all the trash and junk we collect at each site is either recycled, reused, or repurposed. Our company is here to ensure that individuals and businesses can get rid of their appliances while also having a positive impact on the environment and their local community.
How to Contract Junk King South San Francisco
If you have used appliances that you want to donate or recycle, you can schedule your next junk removal appointment with Junk King South San Francisco by simply calling 1-888-888-JUNK. We believe in fair and transparent pricing, and thus make every effort to offer live, on-site pricing, especially for larger jobs.
By actually visiting the site and seeing the junk you need hauled away, we can offer you an accurate price for the job. Our on-site price assessment is free and comes with no obligations to hire us. You can also text us a photo of the junk or trash items that you need removed at 737-888-5865, and we will text you back a price estimate.
Lastly, we also offer an efficient pricing estimate online. Just follow the link on the “Pricing” tab on our website, scroll to pricing estimator, enter your zip code, and choose estimate “By List Item” or “By Truckload.” We offer a $20 rebate for hiring us online.
No matter how you choose to contact us, we here at Junk King South San Francisco guarantee to outcompete any written estimate. As a junk removal company that is licensed, insured, and is fully committed to running a recycling-based operation, we also are amazingly able to offer the most competitive (and transparent) pricing for all our junk removal services in the South San Francisco area.
