13,311 Fridges Recycled Last Year

Media Contact: Karl Walquist, (775) 834-3891

To help customers conserve energy and reduce their power bills, NV Energy is again offering its refrigerator recycling program.  Through this program, customers can have their old, energy gulping refrigerators and freezers picked up for free and receive $30 per appliance recycled, up to two per household.

"Refrigerators manufactured before 1985 consume about 1,500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, while newer refrigerators can use as little as 450 kWh a year,"said John Hargrove, program manager for energy efficiency and conservation at NV Energy.

Refrigerators 10-years-old or older use up to four times as much electricity as newer energy efficient models and can cost approximately $140 more per year to operate, Hargrove added. 

All current NV Energy residential and small commercial business customers can participate in the refrigerator recycling program The freezer or refrigerator must have a capacity of between 10 and 27 cubic feet, be empty at the time of pick up, and should have the electrical cord attached and be in working order.

NV Energy partners with Jaco Environmental, a leading recycling company, to recycle the outdated appliances at the company's Las Vegas plant.  Jaco Environmental uses a process that recycles 98 percent of the materials that make up the refrigerator or freezer.  During this process, all toxins and chemicals are eliminated before items are recycled.

In 2008, NV Energy customers recycled 13,311 refrigerators and freezers statewide and received nearly $400,000 in incentive payments. Jaco's recycling facility recovered 2.5 million pounds of metal, 266,000 pounds of plastic and 19,967 pounds of glass. 
 
To receive more information about NV Energy's Refrigerator Recycling Program, visit nvenergy.com or call 1-877-289-8260.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, NV Energy, Inc., is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Nevada Power Company and Sierra Pacific Power Company, are doing business as NV Energy. Serving a 54,500-square-mile service territory that stretches north to south from Elko to Laughlin, NV Energy provides a wide range of energy services and products to approximately 2.4 million citizens of Nevada as well as approximately 40 million tourists annually.