Recycling : Austrian UFH recycled 3 million refrigeration appliances

At UFH RE-cycling, which was founded in 2009 and now has around 30 employees, around 250,000 old refrigerators are recycled annually in 3-shift operation. This means that the 3 million sound barrier of environmentally friendly recycled appliances was broken in March 2021.

"Over the past 12 years, we have disposed of 3 million end-of-life refrigeration units in an environmentally friendly manner since our establishment. In the process, the rate of recyclable raw materials is a remarkable 97 percent," explains Robert Töscher, managing director of UFH RE-cycling.

"The balance", continues Töscher, "can be seen. We ensure, for example, that not a single CFC waste is disposed of improperly. That alone would mean an additional environmental impact of over one ton of CO2 - as much as a passenger car emits over a distance of 8,000 km. In total, i.e. including the disposal of newer end-of-life appliances, we are significantly contributing to a healthier environment in Austria by saving a good 400,000 tons of CO2 per year. The recycling of the secondary raw materials recovered into the production process for new equipment is not only good for the environment, but also helps to ease the global shortage of raw materials and is another effect of which we are particularly proud," says Töscher happily.

Just a few days ago, the construction of a new warehouse was completed after only nine weeks. This has expanded the storage capacity by 10,000 more units for disposal.