Accord Reached on Recycling Car Air-Conditioning Refrigerant

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an unprecedented agreement Friday among the automobile industry, government and environmental groups on a standard of purity for recycled refrigerant used in car air conditioners, the single largest source of ozone depletion in the country.

Air-conditioning refrigerant in cars, trucks and other motor vehicles is made with chlorofluorocarbons, chemicals that, when released into the upper atmosphere, destroy the ozone, a protective layer between the Earth and the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

About 19% of all CFCs come from vehicle air conditioners, said Stephen Andersen, chief of the EPA’s engineering and economics branch.

The standard of purity, approved by the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Assn. and Saab-Scania of America after extensive testing under EPA supervision, is 15 parts per million of moisture and 4,000 parts per million of oil. Approval of new recycling equipment had been denied by Underwriters Laboratories because of the lack of an industry standard.

The announcement was made at a press conference during a Mobile Air Conditioning Society convention held at the Town and Country Hotel in San Diego. Industry was credited with putting aside its own interests and moving rapidly, and one environmentalist called the announcement a “refreshing blast of clean air.”

Service stations, motivated by the increasing costs of refrigerant as well as concern for the environment, are expected to switch to the new equipment within three years.

The new equipment can cost from $3,400 to $6,000, but manufacturers say it is not any more expensive than the recharging equipment now used by many stations.

Because the recycling equipment has not been available until now, stations have been releasing CFCs directly into the atmosphere when they repair air conditioners.

Andersen likened the amount of contamination now allowed to that which would come from the air conditioner of a 1-year-old car that had logged 15,000 miles. Such a car would be “pretty clean,” and the result would be little CFC leakage, he said.

Andersen said service-station owners will also be motivated by the prospect of attracting large contract customers, such as rental car companies and corporations that own fleets of cars. And, if the voluntary agreement to recycle doesn’t work, the EPA may make the equipment mandatory by 1992 among all who service car air conditioners.

“At least this gives people a choice. This has made available the opportunity to choose recycling,” Andersen said.

Liz Cook, project director of the ozone campaign at Friends of the Earth, a Washington-based environmental group, said she welcomes voluntary efforts to recycle the refrigerant, but said the group would “absolutely like to see it be required.”

Finding service centers that use the new equipment will probably be difficult this year, but Simon Oulouhojian, executive director of the Mobile Air Conditioning Society, said he expects every such shop in the country to have the equipment within three years.

Art Hobbs, project manager at Murray Corp., which makes refrigerant recycling equipment, said about 250 units are in the field. Mark Pfleeger, sales manager for Robinair, said his company has roughly 400 units in use.

The motor vehicle manufacturers’ group represents Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., Honda of America, General Motors, Navistar International Transportation Corp., Paccar Inc. and Volvo North America Corp.