Some 30 cylinders of a banned refrigerant R22 Hyrochlorofluorocarbon HCFC that were seized by Tongan Customs at Queen Salote Wharf in September 2013 are still under the care of the Customs Department.

All refrigerants with Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and non-ODS that are imported into Tonga are checked using the refrigerant identifier. It was discovered that the 30 cylinders labelled Refrigerant 134a CHCIF were falsely labelled and, in fact, they contained Hyrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC).

Tonga does not have an approved ozone depleting substances waste disposal facility and so since 2013 the 30 cylinders have remained under the care of Customs officers.

The supplier of the 30 gas cylinders was identified as Fuzhou Wujinghuagong, a Chinese company.

The identity of the local importer, a retailer, was not revealed but he had to pay a penalty fee for “misdeclaratiion of the 30 cylinders.”

Uikelotu Vunga, the head of Tonga’s Ozone Depleting Substances Division said on 24 August that an arrangement had been made for the 30 cylinders to be destroyed in Australia at some point in the future.

Because of their success in identifying the false labelling of the gas cylinders, the Ministry of Revenue and Customs was selected by the United Nations Environment Programme as one of the winners of the Asia Environmental Enforcement Award. The then Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for MEIDECC Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni received the award from Mr Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of UNEP at the UN Conference Center, Bangkok, Thailand on 20 May 2015.

However, the cylinders containing the banned refrigerant have remained in Tonga.