The great Maui Appliance drive

[partscounterman]

As you may know from my posts, the island of Maui lost its only scrap metal yard toward the end of March. I continued to offer appliance disposal and would ship the stuff off island to Refrigerant Recycling in Oahu.
Finally, the folks at the county decided it was time to do something. They announced a free drop-off day and ordered up 10 empty 40 foot shipping containers. Maui residents and businesses were invited to drop off old appliances on saturday.
On saturday, there was not a single truck on this island that did not have some sort of appliance in it. The line started about a mile away. Most people waited in line for nearly 2 hours! The county ended up filling 40 shipping containers with junk appliances. I saw an old Hotpoint washer from the late '60, lots of gold, brown and green appliances. Did not see any pink, aqua or yellow appliances though.
At one point I loaded 6 appliances on our Ford Ranger pickup (don't try this at home!)
Now the county says they are going to start an appliance pick-up program-this will put me out of the appliance disposal business. That doesn't break my heart, but I will miss the income stream. Oh, well!

 

[gansky1]

A Hotpoint from the late 60's would still have been a solid-tub machine but I suppose the idea was to get rid of things, not rescue them! We have those "clean-up" days once a year in the spring here, I should drive down to the appliance drop-site to see what I find, as if I need more!

 

[partscounterman]

If I had the time....

I would have done some shopping that day. I had my own pile of junk to get rid of and I'm sure the county workers would not want me "in the way"
It is kinda sad when you think about the goodies that were there.

 

[maytagbear]

Well, you still have the Freon sucker....

and that is something I don't think the local authority has...

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[tolivac]

Freon

Usually most HVAC techs and outfits have them-If you have a junk machine that needs the freon removed-A HVAC tech or appliance place that services refridgeration equipment can do it. the "vampires" are sold thru Grainger.They are expensive for the average person to buy and use-are intended for HVAC techs.The "vampire" pumps the refrigerant from the appliance and pumps it into a storage tank for recycling,reuse or authorized disposal.

 

[partscounterman]

The sad thing is.....

I got set up with a refrigerant reclaimer back in January. At that point Maui Scrap Metal was still open and they would only take refers that had been evacuated.

Now, with shipping the junk appliances to Oahu, I no longer need the reclaimer. The scrapper there PREFERS to pull the refrigerant himself (he has facilities to clean and repackage the reclaimed refrigerant) so now I'm wishing I had spent that $1000 on something else. Oh, for a crystal ball!