Do you have an old air conditioner compressor that is being replaced by a new one? If so, know that the old compressor should not be thrown into a landfill to take up space in the ground. There are actually many components of an air conditioner condenser that are worth recycling.
Copper
There will be a lot of copper within a condenser that needs to be removed. The pipes that the refrigerant travels through are made out of copper due to its thermal conductive properties. All of the copper will need to be removed from the air conditioner so that there are no other metals attached to it, which will increase the copper's value to those who purchase it.
Scrap yards value copper the most when it is bare. This means that it is even free of anything left on the copper during the manufacturing process. You can take the time to remove these other metals, or simply leave the copper in its current form where it will be worth less money.
Aluminum
Aluminum is going to be the material that an air conditioner is primarily made from. Air conditioner compressors are located outside, and aluminum is used for the housing of the unit because of how well it resists corrosion. All of those fins in the air conditioner are going to be made out of aluminum as well.
Much like with copper, any aluminum will need to be removed without anything else attached to it. It can sometimes be faster to cut off other pieces of metal to leave the aluminum bare, which is faster than manually removing other metal. It does lead to some aluminum that cannot be recycled, but it may not be worth a scrap yard's time to deal with these pieces.
Steel
There is also a fair amount of steel in an air conditioner. The best way to identify steel is to see if a magnet sticks to it. If the magnet sticks, then you know it is steel, but if it does not you are likely dealing with aluminum. Steel is not worth much when recycling an air conditioner, but it still has value to it.
As you can see, there are a wealth of materials in an air conditioner that can be recycled. That's why it's worth taking the time to recycle this appliance instead of throwing it away.
For more information about air conditioning recycling, contact a local company.
Share8 July 2022
Hi everyone, my name is Makana. Welcome to my site about recycling. I am excited to talk to you about all of the benefits of recycling. Throwing garbage in the trash bin only serves to fill up landfills, which has a negative impact on the planet. With recycling, you can rest assured that the majority of the waste goes toward making new packaging and products. The recycled materials live on and can even be processed another time. I will explore recycling rules and techniques in detail on this site. Please feel free to come back all of the time to learn new things.