ARCA is proud to have played a key role in the development of the U.S. EPA’s RAD voluntary partnership program. In addition to providing guidance for program design and implementation in 2006, ARCA collected data and prepared inaugural reports for the company’s utility customers participating in RAD. The RAD program enables partners to quantify the reduction in energy usage and carbon-equivalent emissions as a direct result of their sponsorship of appliance recycling programs.

To be eligible to participate in RAD, a program must properly recover, reclaim, recycle, destroy or dispose of all appliance materials using environmentally sound processes and technologies. Using best practices, ARCA works with RAD partners to ensure that:

• Refrigerants are recovered and reclaimed or destroyed
• Rigid polyurethane foam insulation is recovered for high-temperature incineration or blowing agents in the foam are captured for
  reclamation or destruction
• Metals, plastics and glass are recycled
• PCBs, mercury and used oil are recovered and properly managed