It’s reclaimed and purified. Again, it’s production was banned under the Montreal Protocol and hasn’t been made since 1996. If someone is making it they are risking huge fines from the EPA (at least in the US).

In some countries R12 is reclaimed and destroyed. Most A/C techs I’ve talked to locally say they don’t even have the equipment to recover it anymore.

Hard to say if anyone is making virgin R12. Certainly seems suspect that a lot of reclaimed or otherwise R12 makes it up from Mexico each year. It’s been 25 years of “get it while you can.”

Hard to say if anyone is making virgin R12. Certainly seems suspect that a lot of reclaimed or otherwise R12 makes it up from Mexico each year. It’s been 25 years of “get it while you can.”