Company Profile and History
In 1991 Total Reclaim opened a facility dedicated to decommissioning unwanted appliances or white goods. This work involves the recovery of CFC, HCFC, or HFC refrigerant gases, removal of any PCB capacitors or mercury switches, removal of compressor motors, draining of the compressor oils, recycling of all metals, and the proper management of potentially hazardous materials generated.

Total Reclaim collects white goods from municipal transfer stations and through special collection events for numerous county and city solid waste agencies throughout the Puget Sound region. We also work with local appliance dealers, vending machine companies, and non-profit agencies to recycle appliances that cannot be re-sold through their retail operations. Through these programs, Total Reclaim decommissions over 15,000 appliances annually.

HVAC Equipment Recycling
Total Reclaim’s industrial refrigeration recycling program provides comprehensive recycling to the commercial refrigeration industry, including on-site recovery of refrigerant gases from roof-top air conditioning systems, high speed recovery of refrigerants from fishing vessels, as well as transportation of roof-top air conditioning and refrigeration units for decommissioning at our Seattle and Portland facilities.
Refrigerant Reclaiming

In 1994, Total Reclaim became the first EPA certified reclaimer of refrigerant gases in the Pacific Northwest. This work involves testing of CFC, HCFC, and HFC refrigerant gases recovered by either Total Reclaim staff or HVAC service contractors, consolidation of refrigerant gases in bulk quantities, purification of refrigerant gases to industry standards, obtaining independent verification of refrigerant purity, re-packaging of the clean gases to customer specifications in bulk quantities or disposable cylinders, and re-sale of the gases to qualified buyers.

Total Reclaim was awarded a Washington Department of Ecology Pollution Prevention Grant in 1994 to author a report entitled “Small-Scale Technologies to Remove and Manage Refrigerants and Compressors from Discarded Appliances”. A portion of the grant was utilized to conduct seminars for refrigeration technicians around Washington in proper management of ozone depleting substances.

Fluorescent Lamp Recycling — EcoLights Northwest
In 1996, recognizing the need for proper management and recycling of mercury bearing lighting waste, Total Reclaim created a sister company, EcoLights Northwest, LLC.
In recognition of our pioneering work in bringing fluorescent lamp recycling to the Pacific Northwest, in 1997 Total Reclaim was named the Recycling Company of the Year by the Washington State Recycling Association.

EcoLights recycles straight fluorescent, compact fluorescent, high intensity discharge, and all other types of Universal Waste mercury bearing lamps. Our processing equipment crushes and separates lamps into component parts for further recycling — glass for use as concrete aggregate, aluminum end-caps to scrap aluminum buyers, and mercury phosphor powder to a mercury retort facility for purification of the mercury.

In 2001, EcoLights was awarded the first Washington State contract for recycling mercury bearing lamps generated by state agencies and political subdivisions. In April 2003, the state contract was expanded to include management of monitors, televisions, and other electronic equipment generated by state agencies and political subdivisions. This contract has been renewed several times and is currently in use by over 150 different departments or organizations, including all major colleges and universities in Washington and numerous city governments and school districts around the state.

In 2004, EcoLights began a multi-year contract with the Oregon Office of State Procurement to provide recycling of fluorescent lamps, ballasts, transformers, and electronic equipment for Oregon State agencies and qualified political subdivisions, and we opened our Portland collection and processing facility. In 2010, Oregon State agencies were offered use of the EcoLights Washington State contract through cooperative agreement.

In February 2009, EcoLights installed new lamp processing equipment, modernizing our facility to ensure our operations provide the best environmental protection and worker safety available, while dramatically increasing our recycling capacity. EcoLights Northwest currently processes over 6,000,000 lamps per year.

Electronics Recycling
In 1999, Total Reclaim became the first monitor and television recycler in the Pacific Northwest with the establishment of our electronics recycling program. Over the past 22 years, we have increased our capacity and incorporated mechanized grinding and separation equipment to create a state-of-the-art electronics recycling facility. At the same time, we have worked hard to create environmentally sound and cost-effective recycling programs for a wide variety of electronic devices.