Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assemblymember Amy Paulin have introduced bills (S6105B/A10624) that will create extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs for refrigerants and for appliances, including refrigerant-containing appliances. New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management supports both the refrigerant and the appliance portions of this EPR legislation. That said, because refrigerants are such intense greenhouse gases, the need to capture these emissions is urgent, not just because of their global warming potential, but also because the federal AIM Act phasedown of high GWP refrigerants is creating a pinch on the supply of virgin sources for these gases. This leaves reclaimed versions essential to service existing appliances that rely on them.

So, your refrigerator isn’t getting as cold as it used to, and you’re thinking it’s going to be less
 expensive to replace it than to get it fixed. You go to your favorite big box store, look for fridges that are the right color and have the features you want, hopefully check to see which are Energy Star appliances, then from this short list start comparing prices and looking for sales. Hold on a minute! You should also look at what refrigerant is used in your next refrigerator.

You’ve probably heard Project Drawdown figured out refrigerant management is the #1 solution to drawing down greenhouse gases. And after wrapping your head around how these obscure gases that are measured in parts per billion can add so much to the climate crisis, perhaps you also thought the problem was something for the engineers or policy makers to do something about, which is certainly true, but I’d like to point out three actions that allow homeowners to play a role in properly managing refrigerants. These three actions then form the outline of the broader actions and policies industries and governments can adopt.