According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 10,804,918 lbs. of ozone-depleting refrigerant was reported as reclaimed by EPA-certified reclaimers in 2016. The total includes 9,409,494 lbs. of R-22.

The case can be made that recovery and reclamation begins with keeping refrigerants in the system where they belong; refrigerant that leaks out into the atmosphere is never going to be recovered or reclaimed.

Springtime means many different things to many different people: Love in the air; baseball, golf, and grilling; shorts and sunscreen; a rebirth; a triumph of the dogged determination of life to begin anew after winter.  Or, for those in the refrigeration industry, spring of 2017 means just three more cooling seasons until the only R-22 on the market will be what’s available through reclaimers or in individual inventories (a.k.a. stockpiles).

In March, Airgas Refrigerants began operating an Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI)-accredited refrigerants testing lab after nearly a year of design and construction. The sophisticated testing lab is housed in Airgas Refrigerants’ Atlanta filling and reclamation facility.

Diversified Pure Chem, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-certified refrigerant reclaimer based in Dallas, has opened three new facilities to offer small cylinder exchange and refrigerant buyback services in the following markets: Cincinnati; Louisville, Kentucky; Indianapolis; Greensboro, North Carolina; and central Florida.