Refrigerant Recycling Revolution Launched in Warwick
When Michael Helme realized how much refrigerants contribute to greenhouse gases, he pursued a way to intervene.
Sustainable Warwick, a local group of environmental strategists, recently prevented the equivalent of a half ton of CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere by recycling refrigerants from 130 discarded appliances—mini-refrigerators, dehumidifiers and window air conditioners—with their Coolest Recycling Drive, led by Michael Helme.
Refrigerants, he explained, contain concentrated greenhouse gases.
“According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, 500,000 pounds of CO2 emissions would be produced by 50 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year or in generating the annual electricity use of 41 average homes,” said Helme. “That is also equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions avoided when 78 tons of waste is recycled instead of landfilled. I hope others around the state will replicate our strategy.”
Helme’s path to this plan began when, perhaps reading the New York Times, he encountered Project Drawdown, first published in 2017. The group identified what they determined to be the 100 best climate crisis solutions.
“The number one solution was refrigerant management,” said Helme. “Nobody seemed to know anything about how that could be, so I started investigating and answering questions, which led to more investigations and more questions.”
The result was the Coolest Recycling Drive, recently accomplished in two weeks, after the original 2020 plan for it was delayed by the pandemic. Helme wants others to replicate the strategy, and Red Hook has already begun a similar program, assisted by a grant that Helme helped attain for Bard College, which is located in Red Hook. Others, particularly around the Capitol Region, are also planning similar ventures, prompted by residents who are members of New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management, a group Helme founded. One group motivated by Helme’s success with refrigerant recycling in Warwick is the Albany area branch of the Climate Reality Project, an international organization founded by Al Gore.
The Process
For Sustainable Warwick’s two week Recycling Drive, people dropped off the appliances they were discarding, or the appliances were picked up by a small group of volunteers with trucks and trailers, and they were taken to Warwick Town Hall.
Typically when these appliances are discarded, refrigerants escape from them. Metal collectors often take them before the Department of Public Works picks them up, rupture the tubes and let out the refrigerant gases. But the Coolest Recycling Drive arranged for an EPA-certified technician from Interstate Refrigerant Recovery, Inc. to recover the gases from the appliances on site.
They “busted into” the appliances, pulled out the copper pipe inside, pierced it and used special tools to suck out the refrigerant, Helme said. Then the collected refrigerant was sent to Refrigerant Solutions, Inc., in Massachusetts, to identify the kinds and amount of each refrigerant that was recovered and process the refrigerants so they can be reused . The effort also resulted in two tons of metal for recycling. The cost of the project was $900, Helme said, delighted that so much could be accomplished and cost so little.
Helme also supports related legislation in early stages in the New York State Legislature. Bill S6105, sponsored by Senator Brian Kavanagh, would require companies that make refrigerants or appliances that use refrigerants to provide methods and incentives to recycle.
But Helme, a self-described “refrigerant geek,” sees other refrigerant challenges around him. He was buying mushrooms one day at a Warwick supermarket when he encountered someone working on the store’s coolant system. Helme learned that the store’s system is overseen by a team of four people on 24-hour alert for leaks, and only frozen food cases contain refrigerants. Other foods are cooled by a circulating glycol solution that is cooled by refrigerants but is not a greenhouse gas.
However, Helme found that Warwick’s other supermarket lacks an automatic leak detection system, and refrigerant is used for all cooling, likely contributing to the national average of 25% refrigerant leakage in grocery stores.
“The refrigerant system is so complicated, with so many connections, why wouldn’t it leak?” Helme reasons.
The contrasting behavior of the two Warwick supermarkets suggests the potential for minimizing greenhouse gases with simple new strategies, which Helme says are cost-effective. He declined to reveal which supermarket did what, to keep peace.
Legislative Recommendations
The success of the recycling drive prompted New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management to recommend legislation establishing “extended producer responsibility” programs.
The group supports New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh for introducing bill S6105, “establishing a collection program for refrigerants and refrigerant-containing appliances.” This extended producer responsibility (EPR) law would require the manufacturers of refrigerant-bearing appliances to set up a program to recycle their products at increasingly higher rates over the next 15 years. It also requires refrigerant manufacturers to establish an EPR for the refrigerants themselves, which has been done in Canada, Australia and other countries for decades, said Helme.
Until a statewide EPR program for refrigerants and appliances is established, Helme and his cohorts want to encourage more Coolest Recycling Drives. New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management and Sustainable Warwick are willing to work with partners throughout New York State. They can be contacted at https://www.ny4cool.org/contact or https://www.sustainablewarwick.org/contact
Also, if you have a working, full-size refrigerator or freezer, Orange and Rockland will pay you a $25 rebate for it, and they’ll come to your home to pick it up. Call 866-552-3755 or check out the O&R website for details.
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