Recyling refrigerators in Brazil

Televisions and refrigerators are an integral part of every Brazilian household, and families who can't afford new ones buy them second-hand. The result is that one in ten refrigerators in Brazil is more than 16 years old, and therefore a long way from being green: the old appliances contain gases called CFCs. Their disposal releases high levels of these environmentally harmful gases into the atmosphere. At a state-of-the-art recycling plant run by the International Climate Initiative in Brazil, the old refrigerators can now be cleanly disposed off in a process that captures many millions of tonnes of carbon.