DENR, Delsa Chemicals to seal deal on CFC collection

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and a private company will sign an agreement Monday for collecting refrigerants like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances around the country. “The recovery program for refrigerants is an important component of our CFC phase-out plan. This will assist service shops of refrigerators, air conditioners, and chillers to recover their refrigerants instead of just venting or releasing them into the atmosphere," DENR Secretary Ramon Paje said over the weekend. Under the agreement, Delsa Chemicals and Multi-Products — an importer and distributor of refrigerants nationwide in the last 42 years — will collect, transport, and store the refrigerants from service shops and owners of industrial chiller refrigerators. Delsa will update the Environmental Management Bureau on its collection activities each month, according to the agreement. An estimated two tons of recovered refrigerants will be collected monthly from service shops across the country, government figures showed. The Philippines is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol, committing itself to gradually reduce and eliminate its consumption of ozone-depleting substances. The country banned the entry of CFC starting this year. Since Jan. 1, 2007, the CFC consumption in the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector dropped from 1,079 ozone depletion potential or ODP tons to 453 ODP tons. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV --