In November 1998, following consultation with the major waste management and disposal associations, the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the Federal Ministry of Economics, manufacturers' associations and other specialist groups, RAL (the German Institute for Quality Assurance and Certification) published its specifications for the RAL Quality Assurance Mark GZ 728.
The award of this quality mark covering the demanufacture of CFC-containing refrigerators and freezers provides documentary proof that the minimum standards stipulated in the specifications have been achieved. The mark may only be displayed by those recyclers who have subjected themselves to independent testing by external officially authorized experts, and have thus proved that they meet all the demands of the RAL specifications. The testing procedures are monitored by the 'RAL Quality Assurance Association for the Reverse Production of CFC-containing Refrigerators and Freezers'*.
*) 'Reverse production' is the RAL term for 'demanufacturing'.
The core of this quality assurance system are the quality and testing specifications established and defined by the RAL Institute and the RAL Quality Assurance Association. These specifications are a comprehensive collection of technical requirements which refer to all stages of the demanufacturing process. The RAL specifications guarantee transparency as all stages of the process must be continuously logged.
The primary goal of the demanufacturing process is to recover the greatest possible amount of contaminants and to subject these to properly regulated disposal procedures. In addition, high-quality raw materials are retrieved for re-introduction into the production cycle.
A key element in RAL's quality and testing specifications are the minimum recovery levels for the CFCs contained in a refrigerator or freezer appliance. As every gram of recovered CFC is important, the RAL Quality Assurance Association stipulates minimum recovery levels which reflect the amounts recoverable with current state-of-the-art recycling technology. The figures quoted for CFC recovery are based on the UBA guidelines published in 1998.