Some Utah residents can now use their refrigerators to fight hunger and protect the environment. Rocky Mountain Power is teaming up with Utah Food Bank to help their customers recycle their outdated refrigerators. At an event in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dan and Leigh Fritz became the first to participate in the See Ya Later Refrigerator program.
Those who recycle their old refrigerators are given a $30 check, which they are encouraged to donate to Utah Food Bank. Margaret Oler, spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power, said that refrigerators are more energy efficient, consuming less energy while saving money.
“The new appliances available today use about one third the electricity as refrigerators did 10 and 20 years ago,” she said. “What our research showed was that most of the time when people were upgrading and buying new refrigerators and freezers, they would put those in the kitchen but they would then plug the old refrigerator out in the garage. If they’re going to take a refrigerator out, they will start to see around $150 savings per year.”
According to a statement from Rocky Mountain Power, $30 allows Utah Food Bank to give over 200 meals to those in need. Oler says that almost all of the parts from the old refrigerators can be used again.
“That old unit is recycled and 95 percent of all the components are recycled into new uses,” Oler said. “That unit is deconstructed and taken apart. The metal, the glass, the plastic, those things are all recycled.”
It is estimated that 444,000 Utahns go hungry every day.