OZONE LOSS MEANS KIDNEY GAIN

How refrigerators fight kidney disease

Under a provision of the federal Clean Air Act, the intentional release of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), ozone-depleting chemicals, became illegal on July 1,
1992. Designed to save the earth's ozone layer, the bill also changes the way
people dispose of refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners. The
contraptions can no longer be left on the sidewalks, nor can landfills accept
them unless special arrangements are made to recycle their CFCs.

While some folks griped about the measure, Andrew Martin, president of New
England Appliance Recovery Systems in Woburn, Massachusetts, saw an opportunity
to put the new law to good use. Under an innovative program started in 1991,
state residents wishing to get rid of old refrigerators can call the National
Kidney Foundation of Massachusetts, which then contacts Martin's company to
arrange for a pickup. A fraction of the disposal fee goes to the Foundation to
support kidney research. The Foundation has assisted Martin since he became a
kidney-dialysis patient in 1979.

``Because of the poor economy here, we didn't want to keep soliciting cash
donations,'' explains Andrew Malgieri, the Foundation's development director.
``We started asking people for something tangible, and what's more tangible than
a refrigerator?''

New England Appliance Recovery Systems now takes in some 500 refrigerators a
week--a figure projected to rise to 1,500 per week. The company extracts CFCs
and saves them for reuse; it also salvages steel, copper, aluminum, brass,
plastic, and glass. ``We recycle ninety-two percent of the materials in a
refrigerator,'' Martin says.