Milestone: Over 200,000 Refrigerators and Freezers Eco-Responsibly Processed by Recyclage Ecosolutions

LAVAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - April 20, 2010) - Before even celebrating its second anniversary, Recyclage Ecosolutions (RES), www.recyclageeco.com, located in the heart of Laval's industrial park, has reached an important milestone: 200,000 refrigeration units processed in an eco-responsible way. This is a significant achievement for the managers of this Quebec company, who have successfully implemented and adapted a proven European technology that is the only one of its kind in North America - all in under six months!

It should come as no surprise then that the company was selected as a finalist in the Innovation category of the 2010 Dunamis Contest sponsored by the Laval Chamber of Commerce.

RES specializes in managing and safely dismantling machinery and equipment that contain ozone-depleting substances (ODS), and recycling their components. Recyclage Ecosolutions has skillfully adapted and developed European-calibre expertise for the North American market. Setting up the plant required an investment of $6 million and has resulted in the creation of over 30 jobs. Thanks to cutting-edge technology specially developed for the North American context, RES surpasses environmental requirements for ODS management and achieves a content-recycling rate of over 95% for received machinery and equipment. Its processing centre is the ONLY one in North America that extracts the CFCs and HCFCs from the polyurethane foam used to insulate refrigeration units. This is not required by environmental regulations, which only target the CFCs and HCFCs found in coolant liquids. But the environmental impact of these operations becomes clear when we realize that the insulating polyfoam in these units contains two to three times more CFCs than the coolant.

Environment-The equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road

Thanks to RES, over 400,000 tons of CO2 equivalents have been avoided since 2008. This is the equivalent of taking over 100,000 midsize cars off our roads for a whole year.

This initiative is made possible by Hydro-Quebec's Recyc-Frigo Environnement program, whose goal is to take 300,000 energy-guzzling appliances out of service in only 33 months.

Rapid growth

In order to be ready to take up any new challenges it could receive, RES has expanded its range of action to American Northern and Eastern regions and to other Canadian provinces. It is now an equal joint shareholder in Jaco EcoSolutions Recycling LLC (JES), along with Jaco Environmental Inc. (JACO).

JES already has two semi-automated centres in operation, one in Massachusetts and the other in New Jersey.

Together, RES, JES and Jaco will collect and eco-responsibly process close to 750,000 energy-guzzling appliances on an annual basis.

Environmental gains-Contributing to Quebec's goals

After its first 33 months of operations, Recyclage Ecosolutions will have accomplished the equivalent of reducing 650,000 MT of CO2 emissions-which is almost the entire halocarbon objective set by the Quebec government in its 2006-2012 climate-change action plan, published in June 2008.

Long term development in Quebec

Recyclage EcoSolutions recently began talks with its partners in order to maintain this facility, which is the only one of its kind in North America, in the province of Quebec over the long term.

The company is proposing a medium-term market restructuring through the introduction of a regulation on the broader responsibilities (including refrigerators and freezers) of producers and the development of formulas to share costs with users. It is suggesting a total life-cycle management system for products that is founded on industry and consumers accepting responsibility for all life-cycle stages of the products they manufacture and use.

Lastly, RES recommends avoiding regulatory requirements that would limit access to the financial resources resulting from a future competitive carbon market, because these resources would lighten the burden of both producers and users.

The goal is to ensure the sustainability of collection and recycling infrastructure that is one-of-a-kind in North America, while also drawing on the contribution of all stakeholders involved.

RES' organizational culture, its action and efforts, and the diligence of its employees are in line with this common vision of concern for sustainable development, which is shared among all of the different stakeholders.