Returning refrigerants

Industry is not expected to participate in Australia's refrigerant collection program without support. RRA helps industry share the cost of recovering refrigerants through a rebate system. In 2005/2006, RRA paid out around $1.3 million in rebates to contractors.

The system industry members should follow is:

1. Rent, buy or take on deposit a recovery cylinder from a refrigeration gas wholesaler.
   
   
2. Use the cylinder to recover used and contaminated refrigerants from systems serviced*.
   
   
3. Drop full cylinders into the refrigeration wholesaler, who weighs recovered refrigerant.
   
   
4. Take back emptied or new cylinders from wholesaler.
   
   
5. Collect credit for each kilo of recovered refrigerants.
   

RRA, through its partnerships with wholesalers, has 150 collection points across Australia, available through the industry's existing wholesaling branch network.

Through this national collection service, recovered refrigerants are transported to a secure bank in Melbourne where they are processed, decanted to bulk storage, and then destroyed using the Australian developed plasma-arc process. This process transforms fluorocarbons into harmless salty water.

*RRA recovers only non-flammable, non-toxic refrigerants. Returning other material involves serious safety issues and could lead to severe injury or death for contractors or wholesalers.