PITTSBURGH -- The Allegheny County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Resources Council have partnered to offer free pickup and disposal of any Freon-containing appliance.

South Side's Appliance Warehouse, one of the largest recyclers of appliances in the country, has also joined the effort to recycle appliances containing Freon in a manner that's conveniently green.

"They can call the 1-888-GO-FREON number and set up an appointment," said Pennsylvania Resources Council Director Dave Mazza. "Appliance Warehouse will come up and pick it up at the curb then bring it back here to their facility where they'll remove the Freon and recycle the appliance."

A licensed Freon removal service typically costs $40 to $60, but a $150,000 grant the health department received is covering that cost.

Appliance Warehouse is one of the few licensed Freon extractors in Pennsylvania.

"He'll tap into them and extract and it will go into this 100-pound cylinder and this will get cleaned for reuse," said Appliance Warehouse's Fred Landay of the extracting process.

The appliance then gets crushed and 97 percent of the materials are recycled.

The free Allegheny County Health Department program runs until the grant money is exhausted, with a goal of collecting almost 4,000 old Freon appliances.

Appliance Warehouse

1-888-GO-FREON (1-888-463-7366)