In with the old

Where do old home appliances go to die? Reporter Imogen Neale and photographer Shane Wenzlick discover some of them don’t.

Most old appliances end up on the side of the road or stashed out of sight under the house.

But one 1950s washing machine and wringer was saved from oblivion when it was dropped off during Fisher & Paykel’s open recycling day last month.

The heavy English machine now has a new life – as a museum piece.

Fisher & Paykel’s recycling manager George Gray says the machine is in exceptional condition so it’s now become part of the company’s informal appliance museum.

Old appliances, ranging from a 1920s Kelvinator wood icebox to an American cedar rotary washer, are peppered all around the company’s East Tamaki plant.

Most of them have been dropped in, Mr Gray says.

"We get one or two every now and again."

Appliances that aren’t unusual or old enough to be set aside are disassembled, their bits sorted into labelled bins.

The bits are then either reused or sold to other companies to recycle into new products.

Mr Gray says a staff trip to Germany in the early 1990s led Fisher & Paykel to start its own recycling programme in 1993.

"They noticed the European manufacturers were designing products with their disassembly in mind, their recyclable content and their water consumption – even way back then."

One of the recycling department’s first employees was Frank Barrow, a Fisher & Paykel production manager who’d just retired.

At first he said no to the job, he couldn’t be bothered. But then he says he made the mistake of agreeing to "come in for a while" and 16 years later he’s still there.

"I got interested in the principle of recycling and that’s sustained me ever since.

"The whole concept has been an inspiration. It becomes a way of life."

Now in his mid-70s, Mr Barrow says staff often remind him that he helped build some of the appliances in the museum.

"It’s intriguing to look at how they’ve lasted, to see some of things that have worked and some of the things that haven’t worked," he says.

Mr Gray says it’s harder to recycle appliances that aren’t made by Fisher & Paykel although that doesn’t stop them trying.

"We do all brands. If we were only doing our own it would probably be an easier process because sometimes we struggle to identify what materials have been used."

The recycling effort also extends to packaging and when a new appliance is delivered everything it’s wrapped in is gathered up and taken back to base.

Packing boxes in perfect condition are flattened and reused and any that are damaged are given to a paper recycling company.

A massive blue skip pushed up against one wall bears testimony to the success of Fisher & Paykel’s recycling efforts.

It used to swallow anything they couldn’t find a way to recycle but now it sits empty, a little rubbish bin in one corner having taken its place.

- © Fairfax NZ News