To throw out an air conditioner, make an appointment to have the Department of Sanitation remove the chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). They will then tag the air conditioner and collect it on your next recycling day.It happened again: A not-quite-stable A.C. unit, of which there are thousands and thousands constantly dangling above our heads, actually plummeted from a sixth-floor window, hitting an unsuspecting pedestrian in the head and injuring her leg. “It looked like hamburger meat, it was disgusting,” said Chloe Pinkerton, a 28-year-old high school teacher, who had been training for the New York City Marathon. According to the building’s management company, someone “was removing the air conditioner and lost control,” when it crashed down onto Pinkerton and narrowly missed her boyfriend. “It’s crazy,” she told New York. “One of us could have died so easily.” In reality, although every New Yorker has thought about dying that way (see also: crashing scaffolding; getting pushed onto the subway tracks), death by air conditioner is very rare.