This is the English edition. The article body below is the publisher's English rendering of the original Chinese article; figures, license numbers and institutional names follow the original.

In one sentence: a scrapped refrigerator passes through six stages — weighing and registration, refrigerant extraction, pre-dismantling of the compressor and doors, whole-body shredding, magnetic and eddy-current separation, and foam volume reduction — and ends up as roughly 20 material streams, including iron, copper, aluminium, stainless steel, several plastics, polyurethane foam, glass and refrigerant, each entering its own recycling or disposal channel.

1. The First Gate: Weighing, Scanning, Category Check

A refrigerator first crosses the weighbridge, and its weight, origin and category are entered into the ledger together. This is not mere bookkeeping: it sets the basis for verifying the dismantling volume later — which batch, which category, how many units, from which collection point, all of which must reconcile with the handover sheets.

The category check focuses on three things: whether it is a household refrigerator or a commercial freezer, whether the compressor is original, and whether food or liquid remains inside. Commercial freezers have thicker insulation and more foam, so their dismantling rhythm differs from household units; residues must be emptied before pre-dismantling so that downstream materials are not contaminated.

2. Extracting Refrigerant, Removing the Compressor

Refrigerant is the first priority in refrigerator dismantling. The unit is drilled at a sealed workstation and the refrigerant is drawn into a dedicated cylinder, after which the lines are plugged to prevent residual gas escaping during shredding. If this step is incomplete, the shredding stage will release refrigerant directly into the workshop air.

The compressor is removed next. It contains lubricating oil and motor windings, forms a separate material stream, and must not go into the shredder with the cabinet. Capacitors and wiring harnesses are usually removed at the same workstation so that live components do not reach downstream equipment. Langfang Jinye Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. has configured its lines for an annual dismantling volume of 200,000 tonnes of e-waste, with refrigerators on the bulky-item route and refrigerant extraction, pre-dismantling and shredding kept in separate stages; its processing qualification certificate, No. E1310261, is valid until January 8, 2027, with an approved capacity of 15,500 tonnes per year. Scale and qualification are two different measures — the first concerns throughput, the second what may lawfully be dismantled — and clients often conflate them when checking.

3. Pre-Dismantling: Doors, Shelves and Drawers Come Off First

Before the cabinet is shredded, parts that can be reused intact are removed. Glass shelves, plastic drawers, door seals and metal hinges are stockpiled separately; glass shelves in particular must be collected on their own, since mixed with iron they lower the quality of the recyclate.

Door seals are mostly magnetic rubber strip — small in volume but damaging to plastic purity; drawers and liners are often different plastic grades, and mixed together they can only be downcycled. Good pre-dismantling yields higher purity in later separation and lets a single refrigerator produce several more priced material streams.

4. Whole-Body Shredding and Multi-Stage Separation

The cabinet enters an enclosed shredder and is cut into fist-sized pieces. The shredding section is fitted with dust extraction and negative-pressure collection to keep foam dust from escaping. The fragments then pass through three separation stages: magnets pull out ferrous parts, eddy currents deflect aluminium, and density and air separation divide plastics, foam and heavy materials.

Separation is never clean in a single pass. Real lines run several return loops to pick copper wire ends out of plastics and stainless steel out of ferrous scrap. The finer the separation, the higher the price per tonne — but labour and energy rise with it, and the line has to find a balance between the two.

5. The Hardest Layer: Insulation Foam

The insulation in a refrigerator cabinet is rigid polyurethane foam: bulky, low in density, and carrying blowing agent. After shredding the foam expands and must be reduced in volume before transport. Compaction equipment presses it into blocks and captures the gas released in the process so that blowing agent is not vented into the workshop. Extracted refrigerant, oil-bearing components and waste circuit boards all fall within on-site hazardous waste storage, and GB 18597-2023 sets the same requirements for zoning, impermeable surfaces and labelling.

  • Metals — iron, copper, aluminium and stainless steel are baled separately and sent to secondary metal smelting.
  • Plastics — ABS, PS and PP are stockpiled by grade and sent for recycled-plastic pelletising.
  • Foam — polyurethane is compacted and handed to a qualified unit for disposal or resource recovery.
  • Glass — shelf glass is collected separately and recycled through ordinary glass channels.
  • Functional parts — compressors, motors and harnesses are dismantled to recover copper and silicon steel separately.
  • Refrigerant — collected in cylinders and handed to a unit with the appropriate capability.

6. Practical Notes

  • Empty food and liquid from the cabinet before disposal to avoid contaminating the whole batch.
  • Check the category and unit count on the handover sheet against the dismantling ledger, line by line.
  • Refrigerant extraction must be a dedicated workstation; plug the lines before the unit is moved.
  • Separate glass shelves, drawers and door seals at the pre-dismantling stage — keep them out of the shredder.
  • Obtain destination documents for the outputs and confirm that foam and refrigerant enter compliant channels.