I personally would not have an ethical problem with taking scrap steel, regardless of how it had been used and abused previously, as long as I knew I was not receiving stolen property.

The economics of refrigerant disposal are such that I don't know how the EPA expects these things to be disposed of properly without venting the refrigerant to the atmosphere. I had a line on some refrigerators and wanted to do the right thing. I called around; the best price I could find -- even dealing in quantity -- was $65 a unit. I had to turn down the prospective business; I'd have lost money like crazy on that.

Anecdotal evidence from other local scrappers? They vent to the atmosphere. It ain't right, but it ain't hard to understand, either.