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In November of 1990, the Clean Air Act was signed into Federal law.
This law requires a complete phase out of chlorofluorocarbons
(commonly known as CFCs) and other ozone-depleting chemicals (ODCs)
by the year 2000, although it might be revised to 1997 or sooner.
What does this have to do with your air conditioner?
Your air conditioner uses a CFC based refrigerant, known as R-12, or
freon. This law means that there won't be much R-12 left by the year
2000, and what is left will be very expensive, because of a tax that
will reach about $5.00 per pound.
Why are they doing this to us? We like our cars to have air
conditioning. This is being done because of the terrible damage CFC
based refrigerant is doing to the ozone layer. In the U.S., the
largest single source of ozone damaging emissions is from our
automobile air conditioners. It's been estimated that car air
conditioners used over 48,000 metric tons of R-12 in 1989 -- this
is 21%% of all CFC use in the U.S.
Of course, this causes a big problem for both us and our mechanics.
We won't be able to go out and buy a can to "top-off" our systems.
The new laws specify that all refrigerant will have to be recaptured
and recycled when we have repairs made. Of course, this will take
expensive and specialized equipment. Our mechanics will have to make
sure that there are no leaks, and fix them if there are, before they
can add any R-12 to our air conditioning systems. Naturally, this
cost will be passed along to us.
Recovered refrigerant will be recycled. Capturing refrigerants and
restoring them for reuse is not only environmentally sound, but
mechanically safe. Each molecule of CFC in the atmosphere has a 120
year life that will destroy tens of thousands of ozone molecules.
This means that a CFC molecule released in 1991 will still be
damaging the ozone layer in 2100.
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