Mark Vender
A new report from Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (RRA) has highlighted the concerning volume of refrigerant lost when split systems reach end of life in Australia. It estimates that each year, hundreds of tonnes of refrigerant are not being reclaimed. Factoring in the global warming potential of the gases, this could equate to more than a million tonnes of CO2e being needlessly emitted annually.
The figures are based on a landmark survey of more than 100 contractors who logged data of more than 1,150 decommissioned systems. The majority of these systems contained R22 and R410A, with a smaller number operating on R32. The average charge size was 1.93kg, and systems contained on average 70 per cent of their initial charge. Average operating life was 13.7 years.
Combining this information with the number of split systems imported into Australia annually, RRA estimates that 945.3 tonnes of refrigerant should be available for recovery each year from this equipment class. This is considerably more than 500 tonnes or so that is currently being collected across all equipment types.
Concerning, but not surprising
The RRA’s Michael Bennett says the report confirms what was already strongly suspected.
“We think there’s more refrigerant to be had,” says Bennett, “but you have to actually go and prove it. There hadn’t been any research here or even globally. So now we know, and having put that stake in the ground you can say, ‘How do we move that? How do we increase that rate of recovery?’”
Some measures have already been suggested, including increasing the money that contractors can get for recovered refrigerant. During the first half of 2021, the RRA increased rebates from $3 to $10 per kg. Although the results of this initiative are not available yet, Bennett suspects the answer will be more complex.
“There are other issues at play, and it’s a lot to do with time,” he says. “How much time people have, and how they value their time.”
Bennett points to the prevalence of fixed-price installation contracts in the split air conditioning sector.
“When someone buys an air conditioner from a retailer they sign up for an installer,” he says. “The installer is on a fixed-price contract, and that price is pretty much to install rather than to remove. So the longer they take doing that, and recovering the gas, they can’t charge any extra.”
Bennett suggests that the ideal solution will probably be “part carrot, part stick”, with incentives as well as strengthening of regulations for better compliance.
Rethinking our approach to recycling
Another issue at play is Australia’s lack of effective recycling systems for end-of-life equipment. This applies not only to split systems, but also to other household appliances such as fridges, and also to cars, which represent another significant volume of lost refrigerant – estimated to be in the order of 200 tonnes annually.
“Mandated recycling programs for end-of-life consumer durables and motor vehicles would provide the opportunity to not only strongly increase recovery,” says Bennett, “but also reduce or improve a broad range of other deleterious environmental impacts.”
As in the first stage of the project, RRA will now seek to explore the problem further and confirm some of the above impressions. Focus groups will be formed with business owners and contractors – including some from the automotive sector – as well as professional researchers.
“We need to conduct focus groups because people tend to feed off each other,” says Bennett. “They start to say, ‘These are the issues that I’m facing’, and other people go, ‘Yeah, hey, you know, these are the sorts of things I’m coming across as well.’
“There’s a lot of power in that. We’ve done the quantitative research, now we want to do the qualitative side.”
How does Australia compare?
The RRA’s recovery program has been recognised as a world leader. But how does Australia compare to other countries when it comes to recovering refrigerant from the split system sector?
Bennett notes that as a hot and affluent nation, Australia has an unusually large reliance on stationary air conditioning equipment. There are potential comparisons with Japan, which does recover more refrigerant thanks to manufacturers’ programs for end-of-life equipment.
But on a per kilo basis, Bennett says Australia is as good as any other country in the world – and is better than most.
“While Japan may shade us on total recovery, that is due to the mandated end-of-life programs,” says Bennett. “When viewed as returns from the market, product recovered by technicians, the commitment and sustained efforts of Australian industry shines through.”
For Bennett, the new RRA report highlights a great opportunity to improve.
“We need to find ways of making it easier for technicians to recover,” he says. “We can do this by increasing focus, removing impediments, and providing greater incentives.”
To read the report, click here.
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