Rules and market, clearly explained.
What is still allowed, what you need to arrange and where the market is going. With sources.
- 15 October 2026Refrigerant servicing bans 2025, 2030, 2032: what is allowed?Since 1 January 2025 it has been prohibited to service refrigeration equipment with virgin refrigerant with a GWP of 2,500 or more, such as R404A and R507A. Reclaimed or recycled refrigerant remains allowed until 1 January 2030; air conditioning and heat pumps have had the same ban since 2026, with reclaimed and recycled gas allowed until 2032. From 2032, virgin refrigerant with a GWP of 750 or more is banned for servicing stationary refrigeration, with chillers excluded.
- 15 October 2026Refrigerant disposal in the Netherlands: the paperwork explainedRecovered refrigerant that you dispose of is normally treated as hazardous waste. You may only hand it to a carrier or collector registered on the VIHB list, under a waste stream number issued by the receiving processor, with a consignment note for every load. The processor weighs the load, signs for it and reports receipt to the LMA, and you keep your records for at least five years.
- 15 October 2026Owning a refrigeration system: what to arrange at replacementAs the operator, you are responsible for leak checks, the logbook and the recovery of refrigerant, even when a contractor does the work. On decommissioning, a certified technician must recover the refrigerant, after which it is recycled, reclaimed or destroyed. Ask your contractor where the gas goes and record it in the logbook.
- 6 October 2026Recovered, recycled, reclaimed: what is the difference?Recovered refrigerant has been removed from equipment or a cylinder and stored; nobody knows exactly what is in it until it is analysed. Recycled refrigerant is reused after a basic cleaning process such as filtering and drying. Reclaimed refrigerant has been reprocessed in an authorised facility to the performance of new product and can go back on the market as a substitute for new gas.
- 6 October 2026Why the 2027 quota cut moves value to recovered refrigerantOn 1 January 2027 the maximum quantity of HFCs that may be placed on the EU market falls from 42.9 to 21.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, roughly half. Demand from installed equipment does not fall with it. Refrigerant recovered in the EU and then recycled or reclaimed sits outside the quota, which turns it from a disposal cost into supply.
- 6 October 2026Why reclaim plants are short of recovered refrigerantReclaim capacity is not the constraint; feedstock is. The recovered refrigerant exists, but it is scattered across the chain in lots too small to collect on their own. Aggregation and documentation are the missing link.