20 refrigerator, car aircon shops in Benguet to get funding to recycle CFC

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Twenty eligible refrigerator and car repair and supply shops here and in La Trinidad will be issued financial assistance from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to recycle ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The cash assistance will be given to qualified service enterprises for them to acquire tools and equipment for the proper recovery and subsequent recycling of CFCs. Among these tools and equipment are portable leak detectors, recovery and recycling machines, vacuum pump and meters, electronic weighing scales, nitrogen regulators with gauges, and electronic thermometers. Those chosen CFC recycling shops must be duly registered with any government agency like the Department of Trade and Industry and employ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-certified technicians. The program is being implemented in cooperation with the Land Bank of the Philippines and with assistance from the Montreal Protocol's Multilateral Fund through the World Bank and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. According to the EMB, about 75 percent of the total CFC consumption in the country is consumed by the service sector, of which almost half is used to service car air-conditioning systems while 26 percent goes to the servicing of household refrigerators and air-conditioners. By year 2010, the Philippines is expected to have completely phased out the importation and the use of CFCs in the service and manufacturing sectors. The program is also part of the bureau's mandate to begin pilot testing alternative methods and practices which in the long term will redound to the aim of providing clean air for the people. - GMANews.TV