ASHRAE Journal - December 2019 - 36

TECHNICAL FEATURE

However, there is still no regulation when it comes
to recycling or reuse of HVAC components. This is left
to the market to decide how to dispose of, and as mentioned before, a lot of units are ending up in the landfill.

Conclusions

The current waste streams for residential and commercial HVAC&R systems lead to undue environmental
impacts. Federal regulations are attempting to limit
these impacts by managing and tracking refrigerants and phasing out the most harmful refrigerants.
However, large quantities of refrigerant and valuable
materials from HVAC&R systems still end up in the
environment. Residential systems do not have clear
options for improved waste streams, and the responsibility ultimately falls on the homeowner to ensure their
systems are disposed of responsibly. Several commercial
companies have paved a path for improved responsible
disposal that optimizes reusing and recycling and minimizes waste. Lowe's published results from its proactive replacement policy leading to 1,814 metric tons of
recycled refrigerant and materials in 2017 alone.20 Other
leading companies have similar proactive replacement
policies and have even become net cash positive, which
should significantly help adoption across the United
States. Even when systems end up in landfills, the
recycle rate for residential and commercial systems was
58% in 2014.3 This too could be improved. For example,
98.9% of lead acid batteries that arrived at landfills
were recycled in the same year.3 With a combination of
improved regulations, waste streams, and landfill recycling rates, we can improve the systems and reduce a
growing potential environmental impact.

Acknowledgments

This work was authored by the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable
Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding
was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office
of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Building
Technologies Office. The views expressed in the article
do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the
U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and
the publisher, by accepting the article for publication,
acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to

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publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or
allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.

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ASHRAE Journal - December 2019

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