When the Montreal Protocol calling for a reduction in ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was agreed a decade ago, Japanese industry moved quickly to replace the harmful gases with substitutes. Production of CFCs has been halted, in line with the country's international commitments. But Japan has been slow to recover CFCs already in use and to prevent the gases from escaping and eating into the ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. Now the Japanese government has finally moved to address the pressing need to recover CFCs still in use. In September, the authorities agreed with industry on proposals for voluntary efforts to recover CFCs from products such as air conditioners in cars and refrigerators destined for the rubbish dump.
As the UN Conference on Climate Change gets under way in Kyoto this week, Japanese officials emphasise that the govern- ment has done everything required of it under the Montreal Protocol. That includes a total ban on production after 1995 and the gradual phasing out of substitute gases, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).
Japan has been more meticuious than most other countries in compiling data on the state of CFC recovery efforts, notes Mote- haru Yamazaki, deputy director of the Environment Agency's Wide Area Atmospheric Protec- tion Office. "There are hardly any other countries, apart from Japan, that collect data on how much CFC is actually being recovered," he says. Nevertheless, the authorities acknowledge that greater efforts need to be made towards the recovery of the ozone-depleting gases. In contrast to many western countries, there is no legislation in Japan banning release of CFCs into the environment. The authorities must rely on the goodwill of users in industry as well as the general public to ensure that the gases do not escape into the atmosphere.
While CFCs have not been produced in Japan since 1995, there is still a considerable volume of the gases in use, particularly as coolants. The Ministry of Interna- tional Trade and Industry calcu- lates that the use of CFCs has fallen to about 180,000 tonnes a year, down 14 per cent from the peak in 1989. The semiconductor industry, which was a substantial user of CFCs as a washing agent, has more or less completed the switch to HCFCs. Vehicle manu- facturers have been using HFCs instead of CFCs for air condition- ing since 1994, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
But vehicles made before 1994 are likely to contain CFCs in their air conditioning, which is a common feature of Japanese cars. "There are many companies that take the CFC out of the product - like car air conditioners - and put them into tanks, but do not know what to do with it," says Masataka Saburi, deputy director of the Ozone Layer Protection Office at Miti. "The facilities to decompose CFCs are expensive to use and some companies have even just thrown the tanks away," he says. Furthermore, CFCs are in wide use in commercial air condition- ing. When buildings are torn down, the chances are that the CFCs in the air conditioning will escape into the air.
The Environment Agency estimates that about 44,000 tonnes of CFCs might be recovered from products in use. A further, unknown quantity, exists in the form of insulating material and other materials and cannot be readily recovered. The bulk of the CFCs which can be recovered is in car air conditioners, which comprise 23,000 tonnes or 52 per cent of the total. Commercial refrigerators and air conditioners make up 34 per cent, or 15,000 tonnes while home refrigerators account for 14 per cent, or 6,000 tonnes. So far, Japan has focused on encouraging recovery without the force of legislation. But the strategy has not been as successful as the authorities would have liked.
An environment ministry survey shows that while CFCs are recovered from 57 per cent of home use refrigerators that are entrusted to local governments for disposal, the ratio falls to just 18 per cent for commercial refrig erators and air conditioners, 8.6 per cent for old refrigerators taken back by retailers, and a meagre 7.2 per cent for car air conditioners. Mr Saburi at Miti points out that one of the difficulties has been the lack of infrastructure. Unless there is a relatively easy svstem for companies to have CFCs collected, transported and dealt with at facilities, they will not be encouraged to do so, he notes . The high cost of having the gases decomposed is another obstacle that has kept recovery levels low. "There is a need for incentives to encourage companies to recycle because if it is cheaper to throw it away than to recycle or have it decomposed, than our efforts won't work," he says.
So far, the Japanese authorities have remained lukewarm on the idea of introducing legislation to force companies to have used CFCs decomposed at special facilities. Even if legislation is introduced, without solving the problem of infrastructure and how to pay for recovery, legal enforcement will not be effective, Mr Saburi says. What's more because CFC is a gas, there is way to find out if anyone breaking the rules, he points out.
It is relying on voluntary m sures proposed by each industry to collect CFCs and have the gases decomposed. The burden of the cost will be shared between industry and users, with industry-paying for the capital investment and users shouldering the cost of running the facilities. Vehicle users, for example, will have to pay a fee when they trade in their car, to have the CFC in the air conditioning system taken to a facility and decomposed. Companies which supply air conditioning to commercial buildings will be held responsible for recovering the CFCs in the building when it is torn down, notes Mr Yamazaki at the Environment Agency. Meanwhile, the Japanese government and industry have plenty of other related issues to deal with. HCFCs, used as a replacement for CFCs, will have to be phased out by 2030. Of greater concern is the mounting momentum for a reduction in HFCs, which have been increasingly used as a CFC substitute. The global warming potential of HFCs is 1,300 times that of carbon dioxide. There is a growing possibility that calls for a phased reduction in HFCs will arise at Kyoto. The problem is that "it is not at all easy to find replacements for HFCs", points out Touru Nagay- ama, section chief in the control and co-operation division of the Global Environment Department at the Environment Agency.
Finacial Times 3dec97