This equipment does not have to meet any particular standards at this time. Mixtures of CFCs and HCFCs, while almost impossible to separate for recycling, are not considered to be hazardous waste. If the refrigerant changed ownership, however, that refrigerant must be reclaimed, i.e., cleaned to the ARI 700 standard of purity and chemically analyzed to verify that it meets this standard. The following companies purchase recovered refrigerants through their distributors, and then reclaim them to specifications. Call for distributor lists.
Several options are available for removing refrigerants from scrapped appliances.
In some instances, a contractor will make house calls, and will remove the refrigerant from the appliance before it is put out for collection. This is a costly option, however, comparable in price to a typical service call by a repairman. Since the appliance is not removed by the contractor, the homeowner or municipality is still faced with the costs of collection and recycling of the appliance. There is usually a cost involved in both these cases. These companies then remove the refrigerant fluid and send the appliances to scrapyards or shredders, where the metal is recycled.