Cool-Safe accredited as refrigerant and SGG stewardship scheme in NZ

Cool-Safe has been accredited by New Zealand’s environment minister as a product stewardship scheme for the priority product refrigerants and other synthetic greenhouse gases.

The organisation says a regulated stewardship scheme, with full participation, will help provide “better insights on the whole lifecycle of refrigerant, from import to destruction, increasing the impact of decisions made by both industry and government”. 

Until the relevant regulations are in place, refrigerant stewardship schemes – such as the Cool-Safe scheme operated by the Trust for the Destruction of Synthetic Refrigerants – remains voluntary.

“While Cabinet is still to approve regulations, this is a huge step in the right direction.” said trust chair Richard Lauder.

“Cool-Safe continues to build and develop the product stewardship programme offering which already exists, with Cool-Safe’s introduction of financial incentives paid for waste refrigerants, making it easier for the sector to recover their refrigerant through our free door-to-door courier and cylinder services. Working with industry makes a lot of sense and supports an easier transition to regulation in due course.”

As of March 31 this year, the trust says it has abated 1,496,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, in addition to 39,800 tonnes of avoided ozone depletion.

Cool-Safe said it will also “seek to increase the volume of recovered refrigerant and other synthetic greenhouse gases from an average of 34,000kg per annum to over 270,000kg per annum across all stakeholders and participants”.

“It will also reflect the opportunities in our sector to further reduce our impact on the environment and streamline training and certification opportunities.“

Coinciding with the announcement, Cool-Safe operated a series of roadshows explaining what a regulated product stewardship scheme would look like in practice at Hawkes Bay, Auckland, Dunedin, Nelson or Christchurch.