The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and six other auto industry groups will in January begin recovering and disposing of chlorofluorocarbons used in auto air conditioners in Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures.
This is the first attempt to recover and dispose of CFCs from products on the market, industry sources said. The organizations plans to expand their efforts nationwide by next summer, they said.
Auto sales companies and factories that dismantle used cars will recover CFCs and deliver the gas to makers of auto air conditioners. CFCs will then be shipped in large cylinders to a disposal factory in Mihara, Hiroshima Prefecture, they said.
Automakers must cover the cost of the disposal but car owners are expected to pay around 3,000 yen for the service, they said. Production of CFCs, which destroy the Earth's ozone layer, ceased in Japan at the end of 1995.
About 44,000 tons of CFCs are still left in air conditioners and commercial refrigerators. Auto air conditioners accounted for 52 percent, or 23,000 tons, of all CFCs emitted, they said.
A recovery system for home-use refrigerators will be built up in accordance with the proposed home appliance recycling bill to be presented during the next regular Diet session. For the time being, local governments will be renting out equipment for recovering CFCs from home-use refrigerators, they said.