Houston-based Derichebourg Recycling USA Inc. will pay a civil penalty of $442,500 and has settled with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve Clean Air Act violations at facilities in both Texas and Oklahoma.
According to a release by the Department of Justice earlier this month, a federal complaint was filed with a consent decree that said Derichebourg did not recover refrigerant from appliances and vehicle air conditioners before disposing them. This, the release said, causes the release of ozone-depleting substances and ultimately add to climate change at an alarming rate.
“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,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlement is a win for the communities surrounding Derichebourg’s facilities, and the environment.”
The violations took place at 10 scrap metal recycling facilities and the settlement will lead to Derichebourg implementing a Refrigerant Recovery Management Program. It also requires the company to give notice to suppliers that refrigerants must be recovered properly from appliances and vehicle conditioners. The settlement also requires Derichebourg to reject any appliance or vehicle that has evidence of illegal refrigerant venting, as well as provide an educational handout to customers on how ton handle items that contain refrigerant responsibly.
Derichebourg also needs to complete an environmental mitigation project that involves destroying R-12 refrigerant that the company collects at the facilities, which is one of the most destructive ozone depleting substances around. The release said it has a global warming potential more than 10,000 times carbon dioxide.
“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
