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EPA Urges Feedback from Retailers on Refrigerant Phaseout

Julius Banks, national recycling and emissions reduction program manager, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, urged food retailers yesterday to provide more input to the EPA on the phaseout of ozone-depleting R-22 HCFC refrigerant from their store refrigeration systems.

DENVER — Julius Banks, national recycling and emissions reduction program manager, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, urged food retailers yesterday to provide more input to the EPA on the phaseout of ozone-depleting R-22 HCFC refrigerant from their store refrigeration systems. “The supermarket industry should be at our door,” said Banks, who spoke at a session at the Food Marketing Institute’s Energy & Technical Services Conference here. “I can’t imagine why we don’t have more people telling us this is correct, or this is off.” The EPA’s next major deadline for the R-22 phaseout is 2010, when no production or importing of R-22 will be allowed for new refrigeration equipment. In 2020, production and importing of R-22 will be completely halted in the U.S. Because supplies will be limited, retailers still using R-22 after those dates will be dependent on recovered refrigerant. “This is the phase where [the EPA and the supermarket industry] can work together,” said Banks. “You can help us with how we get more R-22 into the reclamation stream.”

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