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What To Do With Your Old Or Unused Air Conditioners

by Daryl Simmmons

People are always upgrading their air conditioning units because their old ones have either gotten too slow, too inefficient, or they just don't have enough features to keep up with modern variants. While those are all totally reasonable causes to get rid of an air conditioner, what should you actually do with it? The answer is simple: recycle it. AC recycling is getting more and more popular, especially as more and more people realize that air conditioners can be recycled. Here is a quick look into how the process works.

How Are AC's Recycled?

An air conditioner contains many different components, and some are a lot more valuable than others. Mostly, it comes down to the scrap value of the items you want to recycle, and in your air conditioner, there are many rare metals and strong plastics that recycling factories want. In fact, most of the time, the cause of an air conditioner malfunctioning is not any of these valuable parts at all, but rather something cheap, like the filter or coolant failing. The expensive, valuable parts of your air conditioner are ripe for recycling, and that is why they can be so sought after.

How Do You Recycle An AC?

All you have to do to recycle your air conditioning unit is to find a factory that will accept it. These recycling plants are quite common, and almost all of them will take air conditioners. In fact, some AC recyclers will actually pay you some of the scrap metal value of your AC just to take it off your hands. This is only getting more and more popular as recycling becomes more integral to the future of the planet and more companies start commissioning recycled materials. 

Do You Have To Break Up The AC To Recycle It?

No, in fact, it is best if you don't touch the internals of the air conditioning at all. You can get heavy metal residue on your hands and that can be very corrosive and not good for your health. AC recycling plants prefer when you just leave these machines as they are and let them do all of the hard work separating the riches inside from the rubbish. The last thing you want to do is accidentally ruin what could be perfectly salvageable parts because you were trying to help. By taking it in to be recycled, you are already doing more than most, so don't worry!

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