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With Australia’s next Federal election impending, the Australian based Green Cooling Association is urging the upcoming government to put in place an effective scheme for the recovery and destruction of global warming gases from end-of-life refrigerators and air-conditioners.

Numerous old refrigerators and air-conditioners end up at disposal facilities every year in Australia as they are being replaced by new equipment. Unlike new household refrigerators, the majority of which use low global warming potential (GWP) hydrocarbon refrigerant gases, end-of-life equipment typically still contain CFC, HCFC or HFC refrigerants.

Although Australian law requires the recovery of refrigerant gases from the cooling circuit during disposal, the law is almost universally ignored and left unenforced. What is more, there is a loophole in the current legislation allowing the release of gases trapped in the insulating foam of equipment (largely CFC11 with a GWP of about 5,000) when fridges are put through shredders.

Low hanging fruit: potential to save 500,000 tonnes CO₂-eq per year

“Emissions recoverable from even a small fridge can represent 2.8 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, and recovery from dead fridges and air-conditioners alone could provide abatement of 500,000 tonnes per year. Only a tiny percentage of the refrigerant gases that should be recovered and destroyed are even captured, and most of the equipment disposal industry is breaking the law by failing to handle CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs” says Mr. Brent Hoare, Executive Director of the Green Cooling Association, the Australian organisation for environmentally responsible refrigeration and air-conditioning practitioners.

A call on the new Government

The Association is, thus, calling on the next Australian Government “to take immediate and effective action to address the ‘low hanging fruit’ of abating powerful global warming emissions from end-of-life refrigerators and air-conditioners by ensuring necessary economic incentives and regulatory requirements are implemented to ensure world-class ‘demanufacture’ of these systems – that ensures all the CFC, HCFC and HFC greenhouse gases are properly recovered and destroyed, that toxic components are extracted, and that plastic and metals are recycled”. 

Contact Information

If you would like to contact Green Cooling Association for any enquiries, you may send a request to Brent Hoare directly.