KEY POINTS:
Got an old fridge standing in the garage half empty? It could be costing you three times more to run compared with a newer fridge.
A project with Fisher & Paykel is helping Auckland residents get rid of their old refrigerators - cutting down on their electricity bill,
helping the environment and leaving them richer as a result.
As part of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority initiative, Fisher & Paykel is removing old fridges and freezers for free and giving owners the choice of receiving $25 or donating that money to the children's charity Ronald McDonald House in Auckland.
The recycling manager for Fisher & Paykel, George Gray, says outdated refrigeration appliances are less efficient than new ones.
The older fridges use up to three times more electricity.
"Taking these appliances out of use can save householders on power costs, while benefiting the environment at the same time," Mr Gray said.
Under the scheme - running within the Auckland region - old refrigerators are recycled at the Fisher & Paykel recycling plant in East Tamaki, where around 25,000 old appliances have been processed in each of the past 15 years.
Of the recycled materials, about 1600 tonnes is sold to merchants for reprocessing and recycling annually.
Refrigeration appliances to be recycled have to be at least five years old, 100 litres in size and in working condition.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority chief executive Mike Underhill acknowledged that a lot of Kiwi families have two refrigerators within the home - a new one and the old one still being used somewhere else in the home.
Mr Underhill acknowledged that using two fridges in the home - one being energy efficient and one not so energy efficient - had a "huge" potential to save both money and energy.
He estimated that there were about 450,000 old and inefficient refrigeration appliances in use throughout the country, which would be a "significant cost" to owners.
"It's likely that one of these is the old, inefficient fridge that has been shifted to the garage instead of recycled.
"This energy guzzler is costing around $200 or $300 a year to run and the chances are it is sitting nearly empty half the time," Mr Underhill said.