CFCS AND HCS MUST BE JOINTLY RECOVERED TO MINIMIZE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT FROM THE DISMANTLING OF 25 MILLIONS REFRIGERATION APPLIANCES

The German “RAL Quality Assurance Association for the Demanufacture of Refrigeration Equipment” considers essential to recover jointly CFCs and HCs (hydrocarbons) from dismantled refrigeration appliances, in order to minimize the carbon footprint from these refrigeration appliances.

The recommended joint treatment eliminates the risk of unintentionally contaminating HC processing streams with incorrectly sorted appliances containing CFCs or HFCs. Experts argue strongly against attempting to treat CFC/HFC-appliances and HC-appliances in separate processing streams and, most especially, against processing HC-appliances in an open shredder, which might release incorrectly present CFC/HFC appliances.

An estimated  25 million older refrigeration appliances, containing CFCs or HFCs, are still in use within the European Union. The EU WEEE Regulation requires recovering refrigerants and blowing agents at their end-of-life dismantling, to prevent their release to the atmosphere, avoiding the high climate impact of CFC emissions.

Source: Recycling Portal