Refrigerant recovery: the overlooked lever in Australia's net-zero transition

When Australians think about climate action, the focus tends to fall on renewable energy, electric vehicles or large‑scale industrial reform. These are essential shifts. But there is another, largely unpriced source of emissions embedded in our everyday infrastructure — the refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners cycling out of Australian homes, businesses and logistics networks each year.

Refrigerants, the engineered gases that underpin modern cold chains and thermal comfort, are among the most climate‑intensive substances still moving through our economy. Gases used in fridges and air conditioners can be many hundreds, and in some cases around 1500 times stronger than carbon dioxide in terms of warming, so even small leaks have a big climate impact, especially when appliances are dumped or dismantled without proper degassing.

Millions of appliances reach the end of their life in Australia each year, but only a portion of the gas inside them is captured, and recovery is even poorer for older models that still contain banned ozone‑depleting chemicals. It’s also no longer just those legacy gases we need to worry about: some of the newer ‘safer’ refrigerants can break down into substances like trifluoroacetic acid, a type of PFAS that lingers in the environment and is now being detected in waterways. Yet Australia still lacks an integrated, whole‑of‑appliance framework that treats refrigerant leakage, materials recovery and illegal dumping as a single system problem.

On the ground, the highest risk of leakage begins the moment an end‑of‑life appliance leaves the home. Without deliberate collection, transport and degassing processes, gases are easily lost in transit, turning everyday white goods into a significant but preventable emissions source. Retailer‑led take‑back programs, such as Appliances Online’s, show what good looks like: by building free removal and recycling into the standard customer experience, they make it easy for households to responsibly return old fridges and freezers.

“By making it easy for customers to return old fridges and freezers, we can prevent emissions, recover valuable materials, and embed circular economy practices across the industry and for consumers,” said Alice Kuepper, Head of Sustainability, Appliances Online, underscoring how retailers can turn end‑of‑life appliances from a liability into part of the climate solution.

These kinds of programs show that refrigerant recovery is not waiting for new technology. The processes already exist to safely capture, reclaim or destroy gases at scale. The real constraint is structural: our policy, stewardship and market settings have not kept pace with the risk in circulation.

Existing refrigerant collection and rebate mechanisms have created an important baseline for industry participation, but on their own, they cannot overcome the cost and coordination barriers to comprehensive recovery and address free-rider risks. Coupled with a whole‑of‑appliance rethink (where the cabinet, metals and gases are governed under a coherent, scheme‑based architecture), these mechanisms could deliver far greater impact than they do today.

Crucially, this is not a cold start for government. The Commonwealth has already undertaken extensive consultation on e‑waste and appliance stewardship; the evidence base and stakeholder input is there. In New South Wales, market‑leading approaches such as the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025, championed by Minister Penny Sharpe, have created a mandate to address high‑impact product categories across their full lifecycle.

Within that kind of framework, there is a clear opportunity to establish a dedicated e‑waste and large‑appliance stewardship instrument that hardwires refrigerant capture, repair and high‑value materials recovery into how these products are designed, sold and retired.

From where I sit, working across stewardship, circularity and market design, refrigerant recovery is a textbook example of where architecture, not technology, is the binding constraint. Local governments cannot keep absorbing the costs of problematic waste flows and illegal dumping while high‑impact gases leak from our system. Industry is asking for clearer, nationally consistent rules of the game. Consumers deserve confidence that doing the right thing with old appliances is simple, affordable and effective.

We now need bold, bipartisan political leadership on stewardship. Industry is demanding it, communities and councils are bearing the cost of delay, and consumers have every right to expect that climate‑intensive products are governed across their full lifecycle. If Australia is serious about net zero, we cannot afford to ignore the emissions already in circulation. Refrigerant recovery is one of the simplest and most immediate climate wins available to us, provided we move from fragmented programs to a durable, scheme‑based architecture that aligns policy, governance, capital and operations.

For further information, please see the white paper on the Circularity for Climate website.

Image credit: iStock.com/biffspandex