World Refrigeration Day takes place on June 26 every year, and while it may not have reached federal holiday status, there’s good reason to celebrate this international awareness day. Refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump technologies are central to your modern lifestyle.
Founded by Stephen Gill, a refrigeration consultant from the United Kingdom, World Refrigeration Day raises awareness all the benefits of cooling technology. June 26 was chosen because it’s the birthday of Lord Kelvin, a thermodynamics pioneer and the namesake of the Kelvin temperature scale.
While your first associations with refrigeration likely include cold drinks or keeping your ice cream from melting, but refrigeration is essential to a thriving society:
Food Safety and Distribution: Cooling technology allows families to save leftovers, store milk and meat and prevents the need to visit a market each day.
It does much more than preserve food in the home; there’s also the global food distribution, which uses cooling technology to move temperature-sensitive foods all over the world. It also equips grocery stores and restaurants with the ability to present fresh, unspoiled inventory to customers.
Health: Refrigeration keeps vaccines, medicine and blood supplies from losing their integrity in storage as well as transit. It’s a critical factor for hospitals, labs and pharmaceutical companies to be able to store medical supplies in cool, dry locations.
Comfort and Productivity: Providing air conditioning in homes, schools and offices makes it possible for everyone to focus on their task, not the temperature. A comfortably cooled room equips its inhabitants for better productivity. In regions where temperatures surge, such as in the southwest United States, air conditioning is essential for comfort and focus.
Refrigeration is a Part of Sustainability Plans: While cooling is a factor in a significant share of global energy consumption, the industry is pushing towards more energy-efficient systems and embracing low-global-warming-potential (GWP) refrigerants. In addition, proper refrigeration promotes lower emissions by reducing food waste.
At Plastilite, we are leading the charge in sustainable cooling technology. From our expanded polystyrene (EPS) recycling facility to REfoam+, the EPS material that biodegrades in biologically active landfills, you don’t have to sacrifice the integrity of your food and medical supplies to protect the environment.
How to Celebrate: Try posting about refrigeration on social media, highlighting the cold chain technology that protects your medication delivery or the frozen pizzas at your grocery store. You could also drop your EPS materials off at a local recycling facility.
However you decide to celebrate the day, be sure to finish it off with a popsicle or some ice cream—everyone’s favorite use for cooling technology!
If you’ve been considering your cold chain solutions and would like to examine ways to improve efficiency or more accurately maintain a temperature range, contact us at Plastilite.