EPA Proposes Recycling CFCs by Repair Shops : Environment: The agency wants to restrict the release of chemicals that deplete the ozone from air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment.
In a move that could affect tens of thousands of garages and other small businesses nationwide, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday recommended requiring refrigerator and air-conditioning repair shops to recycle CFC-emitting coolants that now are released into the air.
Most CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, generally are let loose into the stratosphere when air conditioning and refrigeration units are serviced by venting and replacing Freon or other CFC-based coolants.
The EPA-proposed rule would ensure that ozone-depleting chemicals in air conditioners, refrigerators and other cooling systems are reused rather than released into the atmosphere. Auto air-conditioning units tend to leak CFCs as they operate, while refrigerators and home and commercial air conditioners tend to be more securely sealed. Environmentalists emphasize that most of the CFCs from vehicle air conditioners are released during repair or replacement.
“We’re talking about thousands and thousands of local mom-and-pop garages that could be affected by this,” said EPA spokesman David Ryan. The proposal is expected to be published in the Federal Register next week and then be subject to a 60-day period of public comment pending approval.
The initial program would focus on vehicle air conditioners, which account for 21% of the ozone-depleting chemicals emitted. But the cooling systems, solvents and sterilization methods targeted by the entire plan constitute 63% of total CFC use in the United States. The remainder are emitted from aerosols, foam insulation and packaging.
CFCs in turn release chlorine and bromine into the stratosphere. These chemicals eat away at the protective layer of ozone that shields the earth surface from potentially carcinogenic ultraviolet radiation and may contribute to the greenhouse effect, or gradual warming of the earth.
President Bush backs the EPA proposal, as do most industry lobbyists, who acknowledge that CFC usage will dwindle as the industrialized nations move toward phasing out their production and turn instead to substitute products already in limited use. During that transformation, they say, recycled CFCs will be the only coolants available to keep millions of dollars in equipment from being retired early.
In an international agreement approved by the EPA in 1988, CFC use in the United States would be cut in half by 1998. Bush last year publicly upped the ante on that accord by calling for a complete ban on CFCs by the year 2000.
Some states, not including California, already have mandated CFC recycling, as have some municipalities, including the city of Irvine in Orange County.
