A Houston-based recycling company recently entered a settlement agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at 10 of its Texas and Oklahoma facilities.
Derichebourg Recycling USA Inc. is required by the settlement to prevent the release of ozone-depleting refrigerants at scrap metal recycling facilities that allegedly “failed to recover refrigerant from appliances and motor vehicle air conditioners before disposal,” a Jan. 7 EPA press release said.
“Refrigerants that are not captured properly can be damaging to the earth’s ozone layer and are known to increase greenhouse gases which leads to climate change,” Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance said in the release.
Under the settlement, Derichebourg will be required to implement a refrigerant recovery management program at all 10 facilities, give notice to suppliers that refrigerant must be properly removed, “reject any appliance or vehicle where there is evidence of unlawful refrigerant venting” and provide handouts to customers, the release said. The company will pay a civil penalty of $442,500.
The company will also undertake an environmental mitigation project to ensure the destruction of all R-12 refrigerants collected at its facilities, the release said. R-12 holds a reputation as one of the most destructive ozone-depleting substances with a global warming potential greater than 10,000 times the power of carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.
“To continue protecting stratospheric ozone, we need companies like Derichebourg to comply with the Clean Air Act when recycling appliances and motor vehicles containing harmful refrigerants,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in the release.
