Mexico’s Recycling Advancements
by Lori Brown
Published on June 15th, 2009
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Appliance Recycling Centers of America, Inc. (ARCA) recently announced expansion of refrigerator recycling services to Mexico, the result of a joint venture with Mexican corporation Diagnostico y Administraction de Logistica Inversa SA de CV (DALI).
The companies will partner to provide recycling services to more than 160 appliance retailers and manufacturers that participate in a government-sponsored refrigerator replacement program. The program offers residents a cash rebate and low-interest financing on new energy efficient refrigerators in exchange for turning in an old refrigerator for recycling.
According to the US EPA, replacing one inefficient, 20-year old refrigerator with an ENERGY STAR model will save a household 700 kWh/year.
The program has been funded to remove approximately 400,000 old refrigerators from service. The appliances are recycled for metal, plastic and glass, and all environmentally harmful substances, including CFC refrigerants and oil, are removed and properly managed.
“…The expansion of our recycling operations into Mexico provides us with the opportunity to permanently remove these appliances from the power grid and lessen the negative impact of appliance disposal on the environment,” says ARCA President and CEO Edward R. Cameron.
“We are proud to work with DALI to prevent the release of ozone-depleting and high global-warming-potential refrigerants while properly handling the other environmentally damaging materials found in old refrigerators,” he continues.
Also announced last week was Walmart’s planned expansion of the Sustainable Packaging Scorecard to its Mexico stores. The Scorecard, which is used to grade different manufacturers on the “seven Rs of packaging” (Remove, Reduce, Reuse Recycle, Renew, Revenue and Read), is part of a goal to decrease packaging across Walmart’s supply chain by five percent before 2013.
Walmart plans to introduce the Scorecard to Mexican packagers and packaging supply chains at the upcoming Walmart Sustainable Packaging Conference at Expo Pack Mexico in Mexico City on June 25. The retailer intends to launch the scorecard program toward the end of this year.
