Darmstadt / Luxembourg, March 2007 – Of all the various ways of treating waste refrigeration equipment containing hydrocarbons (HCs), the most environmentally benign approach is to process these appliances together with CFC-containing appliances in a single specialist recycling plant. This was the irrefutable conclusion from a life cycle assessment study carried out by the Darmstadt-based Öko-Institut, one of Germany’s leading environmental research organizations. The new study is the definitive reference for anyone looking for guidance on the best possible approach to recycling end-of-life fridges and freezers.The study makes clear that simply removing hydrocarbon-containing appliances from the waste stream and processing them in a shredder without recovering the hydrocarbons is environmentally untenable as it fails all relevant environmental criteria.

Annex II of Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and most of the national implementing measures in the EU member states specify that the hydrocarbons contained in the cooling circuits and insulating foam in refrigeration appliances must be recovered before being disposed of or treated. This specification has driven the development of state-of-the-art fridge recycling technology over the last few years. Today’s advanced fridge recycling plants are able to process waste refrigeration appliances irrespective of the refrigerant in the cooling circuit or the blowing agent in the polyurethane foam. The flexible configuration of today’s plants allows waste appliances to be treated directly without any need for prior sorting into CFC-containing and CFC-free categories.

That using state-of-the-art recycling technology is also the most environmentally friendly means of processing waste refrigeration equipment has now been demonstrated unambiguously by the life cycle assessment (LCA) study carried out by the Öko-Institut into the recycling of CFC-containing and HC-containing refrigeration appliances. The environmental scientists at the Öko-Institut concluded that the joint processing of CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances in a specialist fridge recycling plant (what they refer to as mixed-mode processing) scores better on all key environmental indicators than any other treatment mode currently being practiced in which prior sorting of appliances is performed.

As part of the life cycle assessment, the Öko-Institut study examined the following four scenarios with respect to their environmental protection impact:

Variant 1: Mixed-mode processing
 Joint processing of CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances at the same site. No prior sorting of waste appliances required.
Variant 2: Parallel processing
 Separate processing of CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances at the same site. Prior sorting of waste appliances required.

Variant 3: Step 2 processing of HC-appliances in a car shredder
 Separate processing of pretreated CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances at different sites. Prior sorting of waste appliances required.

Variant 4: Complete treatment of HC-appliances in a car shredder
 Separate processing of non-pretreated CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances at different sites. Prior sorting of waste appliances required.

Assessing the different scenarios involved analysing important environmental factors such as resource consumption (energy resource consumption was estimated by computing the cumulative energy expenditure, CEE), the greenhouse effect, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification of ecosystems, eutrophication of ecosystems and the formation of photo-oxidants.

In all of the environmental criteria listed above, variant 1 proved to be significantly better than the other three methods of processing waste refrigeration appliances. According to the Öko-Institut report, the obvious dominance of this one variant dispenses with the need to undertake the normally highly complex task of weighing up a number of different environmental criteria against one another. The result of the study is thus remarkably clear-cut: Any prior sorting of waste refrigeration equipment into CFC-containing and CFC-free appliances has a significant negative effect on the most important environmental criteria.

The environmental impact analyses were conducted at the Öko-Institut using the relevant standards for life cycle assessment studies. The final results were then subjected to critical review by the ifeu-Institut (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research) – a highly respected independent research centre in Heidelberg. During the life cycle assessment study, expert assistance was available from the project’s advisory council, which comprised experts from the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Environment, the State Environmental Office of Luxembourg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart.

In the opinion of the RAL Quality Assurance Association, the LCA study clearly shows the path to be followed when recycling end-of-life refrigeration equipment. It also demonstrates that the prior sorting of waste appliances should cease, as the associated environmental risks are unacceptable. The Quality Assurance Association believes that the unambiguous conclusions reached in the LCA study will rightly put an end to any proposals to modify the WEEE Directive and its associated implementing regulations in the EU member states regarding the obligation to remove hydrocarbons from waste fridges and freezers. The study proves that Annex 3 of the WEEE Directive was both correct and consistent. While its wording could be improved to make it more explicit and unambiguous, its environmental objective remains valid and has received significant support from the findings of the life cycle assessment study.



A copy of the LCA study can be obtained from the RAL Quality Assurance Association or the Öko-Institut.