About refrigerants

Fluorocarbon refrigerants are colourless, odourless gases. They are generally stable, non-flammable low toxicity substances. Their molecular stability leads to them having a long life in the atmosphere.

When released into the atmosphere they have the potential to deplete the earth's protective ozone layer and to contribute to global warming.

Since the late 1980s in Australia, the law has required the refrigeration and air conditioning industry to deal responsibly with ozone-depleting gases. In response to the Montreal Protocol, contractors must recover the gases and wholesalers must accept them for safe reprocessing or destruction.

The refrigerant gases that contribute to ozone depletion, as listed in the Montreal Protocol, include:

CFCs

HCFCs

In 2003, RRA expanded the recovery program to include two new synthetic greenhouse gas refrigerant groups noted in the Kyoto Protocol:

HFCs

PFCs

In 2004, amendments to the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 were passed by the Australian Parliament making it mandatory for the refrigeration and air conditioning industry to recover, return and safely dispose of HFCs and PFCs, as well as CFCs and HCFCs.