Appliance recycling means depolluting each appliance, shredding it and separating its materials (mainly steel, copper, aluminium and plastics) so they can go back to industry. If the appliances belong to your business, you must hand them over whole, sorted by type, to a waste management company authorised to handle WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment), together with the shipment documents. What can be recovered and how they should be prepared vary quite a lot between a washing machine, a fridge and a microwave.
Which appliances count as WEEE? Examples by group
All household appliances become WEEE at the end of their working life. At a treatment plant they are sorted into three groups, because each one is treated differently. If you want the full legal classification, in seven categories, you’ll find it in our guide to what WEEE is.
| Group | Examples | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|
| Large appliances | Washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers, ovens, cookers, cooker hoods, hobs | A lot of steel; copper motors and wiring |
| Cooling and air conditioning | Fridges, freezers, chest freezers, air-conditioning units, heat pumps | Refrigerant gas and oil in a closed circuit |
| Small appliances | Microwaves, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, toasters, hairdryers, irons | More plastic and less metal; sometimes, batteries |
In a business they turn up mainly in canteens and kitchens, in hotels, when the air conditioning is replaced or when offices are cleared. Professional models, such as an industrial dishwasher, a cold room or a commercial washing machine, follow the same logic, with more weight and more metal.
What is recovered from a washing machine, an oven or a dishwasher?
By weight, large appliances are mostly steel: the casing, the chassis, the oven frame. The washing machine drum and the dishwasher tub are usually stainless steel, which is separated out and recovered on its own. Copper comes from the motor, as well as from the internal wiring and the power cord, and some models contain aluminium parts.
Before shredding, anything that gets in the way has to come off: the door glass, large plastic parts and the concrete counterweights in washing machines, which are very heavy and contain nothing worth recovering. The cleaner the appliance going into the shredder, the purer the metal fractions that come out, and that shows in their value.
Why are fridges and air-conditioning units treated separately?
Because they have a closed circuit with refrigerant gas and oil in the compressor, and the insulating foam in older fridges also contains gases. If the circuit is broken before the appliance reaches the plant, the gas escapes into the atmosphere and can no longer be recovered. Many of these gases have a far stronger greenhouse effect than CO₂, and those in older equipment also damage the ozone layer.
That’s why cooling appliances have their own treatment process: first the gas and oil are extracted with dedicated equipment; then the appliance is shredded under controlled conditions to capture the gases in the foam; and finally the steel, copper and aluminium are separated from the plastic. Your part is to hand these appliances over intact: without cutting pipes, without removing the compressor, and moving them carefully so as not to damage the circuit.
What about small appliances?
They contain less metal and more plastic, so they are worth less, but treating them is just as necessary. There are two cases to watch out for:
- Appliances with batteries. Cordless vacuum cleaners, power tools and electric toothbrushes contain batteries, increasingly lithium ones, which can catch fire if they are crushed in a container or a press. At the plant they are removed by hand and sent to a waste management company that specialises in batteries.
- Microwaves. They contain a high-voltage capacitor that can hold a charge even when the appliance is unplugged, and a transformer with copper or aluminium windings. Don’t open them: hand them over whole.
How should a business prepare for appliance recycling?
- Sort them by group: large, cooling and air conditioning, small. Don’t mix them with scrap or with other waste.
- Hand them over complete. Stripping out the motor or the cable to sell separately leaves an incomplete appliance and the hazardous components unaccounted for.
- Empty them: washing machines and dishwashers drained of water, fridges cleared of food.
- Store them under cover until collection, on pallets or in a container, with battery-powered appliances kept away from heat sources.
- Ask for the documents for every handover. Which paperwork you need, and why, is explained in our guide to WEEE management for businesses.
Which appliances doesn’t Alberich accept?
At the moment we don’t accept electric water heaters or solar PV panels. Water heaters are often replaced at the same time as other appliances during a refurbishment, and they can easily end up in the same container: if you have any, keep them apart from the rest before the collection.
How we do it at Alberich
As an authorised final treatment plant for WEEE, we accept large and small appliances, cooling appliances and air-conditioning units, whether household or professional. With air-conditioning units, we extract the gas with dedicated equipment and hand it over to an authorised specialist company; fridges and freezers are transferred to a waste management company that specialises in cooling appliances. Everything else is depolluted by hand, shredded and separated: the steel leaves as ferrous scrap, the non-ferrous metals are sorted metal by metal and the cable goes to our copper granulation line.
For collection, we place 1–30 m³ containers at your premises and remove them with our own fleet, either as a one-off or on a fixed schedule. If your business doesn’t have a producer compliance scheme (known in Spain as a SCRAP) assigned, we’ll assign one.
Frequently asked questions
Will I get paid for my company’s old appliances?
It depends on what you hand over. The more metal an appliance contains, the more it is worth; the more plastic and components with no value, the less. A batch of large appliances isn’t valued in the same way as a batch of small ones, so the offer is always tailored to the type and the volume.
What should I do if the appliances still work?
Before you write them off as waste, consider whether they can be reused: sell them, donate them or return them to the supplier. The law gives reuse priority over recycling. If they have no further use and you declare them as waste, they must go to an authorised waste management company like any other WEEE.
Can I hand over a fridge that has lost its gas?
Yes, but say so when you book the collection. A damaged cooling appliance is still treated as WEEE even if some of the gas has already escaped, and the waste management company should know so that it can separate and document it correctly.
Do household and professional appliances have to be kept apart?
They don’t need to be physically separated, but you do need to state their origin and type when you book the collection. Household and professional WEEE carry different WEEE EWC codes (European List of Waste), and that affects the documentation and how each delivery is reported.
If you’re going to refit a canteen kitchen, replace the air conditioning in an industrial building or re-equip a hotel, let us know in good time: planning the collection by group saves journeys and simplifies the paperwork.
