## 3 WEEE and ELV Management and Circular Economy
### Recovery and Destruction  
The destruction of refrigerants, including HFCs and ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs and HCFCs, is considered the best practice for the long-term goal of eliminating these compounds, promoting the switch to more environmentally friendly alternatives. The prohibitions in the use of some HFCs and the phase-down of these compounds only started in the last decade, and therefore little data are available regarding their destruction. This contrasts with ozone-depleting substances, which were prohibited starting in the 1990s and whose destruction is still being performed due to the great amounts of compounds present in equipment and products. In the EU, the reported values of destroyed F-gases  
Figure 2: Possible approaches for the management of F-gases, following either a linear economy concept (from production to incineration) or a circular economy concept (involving separation, recycling and/or reclamation processes). increased significantly in 2019 compared to 2018 (Figure 3). This increase was of 145% considering the amount of F-gases (to a total of 1648 tons in 2019) and of 200% considering the CO\({}_{2}\)eq (to a total of 16.6 million tons CO\({}_{2}\)eq in 2019) (Figure 3) [25]. Almost the totality of the reported destroyed F-gases in 2019 referred to HFCs. In the same year, 2019, around 1753 tons of CFCs and HCFCs were reported as destroyed in the EU [40]. According to an ICF study prepared for the European Commission [29], at least 25 facilities in the EU-27 performed commercial destruction of HFCs and ozone-depleting substances. Fourteen of the identified facilities had an estimated combined destruction capacity of approximately 130,000 tons per year [41]. While some countries have more than one facility (e.g., Germany with eight facilities and Hungary with four facilities), others did not have any facilities at that date (e.g., Portugal and Italy) [41]. The costs for the destruction of HFCs and ozone-depleting substances in the EU have been estimated in the range of EUR 1-EUR 10 per kg [41]. Since most destruction facilities are located away from the place where the gases are recovered and collected, and in many cases are not even located in the same country, the additional costs of recovery and transportation (estimated to be EUR 0.10 per tonne per kilometer in the EU) must be added [41]. The applicability of current destruction technologies, previously approved for ozone-depleting substances [42], to HFCs has been assessed in 2018 by the UNEP Technology  
Figure 3: Destruction and Reclamation of F-gases in the EU (2007–2019) according to the EEA Report No 15/2020 on fluorinated greenhouse gases [25]. Data in tonnes of gas (Panel (**A**)) and in million tonnes of CO\({}_{2}\)eq (Panel (**B**)). and Economic Assessment Panel Task Force on Destruction Technologies [39]. The recommendations include specifications for: (i) a minimum Destruction and Removal Efficiency (DRE) of 99.99% for concentrated sources or 95% for dilute sources; (ii) emissions of dioxins and furans, HCl, chlorine, HF, HBr, bromine, particulate matter, and CO; and (iii) technical capability to be applied at a commercial scale. Since corrosive and harmful products, such as HF and HCl, are generated during the destruction of HFCs, HCFCs, and CFCs, the systems must be resistant to these compounds and should integrate their neutralization in the process. In many processes, to reduce the generation of those by-products, only small amounts of HFCs and ozone-depleting substances can be treated or are treated together with other compounds. Three types of technologies that have been used for the destruction of ozone-depleting substances are being used (or being evaluated) for the destruction of HFCs: thermal oxidation (incineration) technologies, plasma technologies, and non-incineration technologies involving chemical transformations [39]. Destruction technologies are expensive, with high initial investments and high operation and energetic costs [39].