Why we only accept working fridges and freezers through our Appliance Retirement service

Through our Appliance Retirement (ARet) service, we will come to your home (anywhere in Nova Scotia!) and pick-up your old, working fridge or freezer at absolutely no cost to you. We’ll have it properly recycled to ensure no harmful chemicals end up in our landfills.

The best part? We’ll send you a $50 cheque in the mail for going through ARet. Yeah, it’s pretty great!

But, we’re often asked why we only accept working fridges and freezers and not other household appliances. Let us explain why.

Our goal as an organization is to reduce or offset energy consumption. If your fridge or freezer isn’t working, it’s not consuming any energy. Although we encourage you to recycle your non-working appliances in a responsible manner, we need the appliance to be working to help achieve our goal.

On the other hand, an older fridge or freezer that still works can consume a lot of energy. Therefore, recycling it helps take an inefficient appliance off the energy grid and gets us one step closer to a greener Nova Scotia.

This is also one of the reasons ARet is limited to working fridges and freezers, and not other appliances like stoves, dishwashers or washers and dryers. Working fridges and freezers draw power constantly as they run 24/7. Other appliances only draw power when they’re being used, so the amount of energy saved can vary greatly from household to household.

If you have an old, working fridge or freezer, and meet ARet’s eligibility requirements, we encourage you to book your free pick-up!