According to Project Drawdown, fluorinated gases have a potent greenhouse effect and are widely used as refrigerants. Managing leaks and disposal of these chemicals can avoid emissions in buildings and landfills. Every refrigerator and air conditioner contains chemical refrigerants that absorb and release heat to enable chilling. Refrigerants, specifically CFCs and HCFCs, were once culprits in depleting the ozone layer. Thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, they have been phased out. HFCs, the primary replacement, spare the ozone layer, but have 1,000 to 9,000 times greater capacity to warm the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Refrigerant management is challenging due to weak regulations on:

1. Leakage of refrigerants
2. End-of-life recovery,
3. Refrigerant production.

Additionally there is a lack of economic incentives for the recovery of refrigerants. Funding, training, technical, and informational barriers also limit adoption of this solution. Funding Tradewater helps directly address these challenges.

Tradewater helps us mitigate climate change through Refrigerant Management, one of the top 10 most effective solutions that involves collecting and destroying potent refrigerants that would otherwise release greenhouse gases into atmosphere. Tradewater specializes in the global effort to destroy these refrigerants in highly regulated incinerators. How cool is that? These harmful refrigerants include CFCs that although banned from production, still exist in large quantities worldwide with no financial incentive or plan to dispose of them. The consequences could be catastrophic for climate change, with CFCs containing up to 10,000 times the warming capacity than carbon dioxide. We are proud to partner with Tradewater to empower their mission to identify, collect, and destroy them here at home and abroad.