EPA 608 Core: Recovery, Recycling, Reclaim, and Venting Rules

The short field answer:
Recovery means removing refrigerant and storing it externally without necessarily cleaning it. Recycling means cleaning recovered refrigerant for reuse, generally for equipment owned by the same owner. Reclaim means processing refrigerant back to at least AHRI 700 purity so it can legally change ownership. Intentional venting of ozone-depleting refrigerants and their substitutes is prohibited, with only narrow allowed release categories. (US EPA)

That table follows current EPA wording: used refrigerant can go back into the same system, or into other systems owned by the same person, without being reclaimed first. But once used refrigerant changes ownership, it must be reclaimed by an EPA-certified reclaimer. (US EPA)

What technicians usually miss:
A lot of people remember “don’t vent” but forget the modern split in the rules. The venting prohibition still applies broadly to ODS refrigerants and substitutes such as HFCs, and Section 608 certification/sales restrictions still apply to stationary refrigerants. But the leak-repair provisions for appliances with substitute refrigerants were rescinded in 2020; those leak-repair duties now apply only to ozone-depleting refrigerants. (US EPA)

Allowed releases you should remember:
EPA recognizes only limited allowed releases, including de minimis releases during good-faith recovery work and refrigerant emitted during normal operation rather than servicing. That is why “it leaked anyway” is not a defense for careless service venting. (US EPA)