The publication series focuses on the management and destruction of existing ozone depleting substances banks including a global roadmap and country-level estimate for ODS banks as well as guidelines on ODS bank inventories, policy measures, establishing a collection system for ODS banks equipment and transboundary movement of ODS waste.
An important source which depletes the ozone layler has largely been neglected in the past: emissions from ozone depleting substances (ODS) banks. Large banks have accumulated globally by the excessive use of ODS, which is found in old refrigerators, insulation foam or cylinders. Banks are defined as the „total amount of substances contained in existing equipment, chemical stockpiles, foams and other products not yet released to the atmosphere“ (IPCC/TEAP, 2005).
As neither the Montreal Protocol nor any other international environmental convention regulates the management and destruction of existing ODS banks, it is each country’s own responsibility to establish a successful ODS bank management scheme to handle this important source of emissions.