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| Why do refrigerators have to be treated? |
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| Refrigerators have to be treated because they contain CFCs in the cool generator circuit and in the insulating foam around the body. In the cool circuit, the coolant is CFC R-12. In the insulating materials, the foam is expanded with CFC R-11.
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| What are CFCs? |
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| CFCs are organochlorated compounds of great stability and low toxicity which, since approximately 1930, have had a great commercial success for multiple uses: coolants, foam expanders, propellors..... The large proportion of CFCs belong to two types: CFC R11 and CFC R12. These compounds, if they reach the stratosphere, along with the impact of the sun's ultraviolet rays, cause the destruction of the ozone layer.
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| What is the function of the ozone layer? |
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| The ozone forms a protective shield around the Earth, filtering the sun's radiation so that a large part of the ultraviolet rays are absorbed and do not reach the planet's surface. When the ozone layer is thinned, there is therefore an increase in the amount of ultraviolet radiation that crosses it.
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| What might the negative effects of the destruction of the ozone layer be? |
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| The effects of this phenomenon are negative on humanity. One the one hand, because the ultraviolet radiation is harmful to the large part of living beings because it can contribute to altering the climate.
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| Who must deal with them? |
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| Catalan legislation establishes that the treatment of
refrigerators and other apparatuses containing CFCs is
a public service of the Generalitat, government of Catalonia,
given through a concessionary company. The Agència de
Residus de Catalunya has a specific
plant in Pont de Vilomara i Rocafort (Bages region),
where advanced technology is used to extract the CFCs
to give them the suitable treatment and, furthermore,
all of the other elements are separated from these apparatuses
in order to recycle the material. Técnicas
de Protección Ambiental, SA (TPA) is the concessionary
company in the mentioned town at carrer Sant Pere Regalat,
42, Telephone 93-831.80.00.
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| What is done with the CFCs? |
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| The CFCs obtained are current destroyed in special incinerators. Current European regulations specify this in order to accelerate the elimination of such products from the market and the danger that they might be accidentally or intentionally released into the atmosphere.
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| What refrigerators have to be treated? |
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| Just about all refrigerators produced before 1995 contain CFCs.
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| How do they have to be managed? |
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| The collection process depends on the origin of the refrigerators:
- Domestic refrigerators: when a new one is bought, the purchaser may get rid of the old one through the sales establishment. When this is not the case, it may be delivered to a tip point. In the first case, the apparatuses are taken to the delivery points, which are authorised managers that send them to the refrigerator treatment centre in El Pont de Vilomara i Rocafort. In the second case, it is the tip points that deal with taking them to this treatment centre.
- Industrial-commercial apparatuses: these must be taken to the refrigerator treatment centre.
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| How are refrigerators treated at the El Pont de Vilomara i Rocafort centre? |
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| After cleaning, the CFC R12 and the oil are removed from the cooling circuit, separating the two fluids for recovery by authorised managers. The cooling system is removed for recycling. The bodies are broken up and the metal parts are separated (iron and non iron), plastics; the CFC R11 is adsorbed from the foam through active carbon filters. All the materials that are separated are recycled, apart from the foam, which goes to a controlled landfill
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| What regulations are applicable to refrigerator management? |
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| Law 6/1993 of 15th July regulating waste. Decree 93/1999 of 6th April, on waste management procedures.
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