The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced a ban on disposable or single use refrigerant cylinders in the United States from 2025.
US cylinder manufacturer, Worthington Industries, has filed petitions asking the US Court of Appeals to overturn the ban.
Australia and the European Union already have a ban in place on non-refillable cylinders.
Worthington Industries director of refrigerants, Wayne Powers, said the EU ban introduced in 2007 has not stopped the illegal trade in HFCs.
According to the EPA non-refillable cylinders are typically discarded with about a pound of refrigerant still in the cylinder. This residual refrigerant is expelled when the cylinder is crushed for disposal or metal recycling.
By replacing disposable cylinders with refillable cylinders, EPA estimates that the US can avoid approximately 29,500,000 MTCO2e in emissions between the years 2022 and 2050.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) supports a global ban on disposable cylinders.