Criticism of the Government's handling of preparations for the new European regulation on hazardous waste has focused attention on a looming fridge storage crisis. Nick Warburton reports

Many local authorities face the prospect of storing thousands of refrigerators for months on end this coming year owing to a new European regulation on hazardous waste, generated originally by the Montreal Protocol 1996. The EEC regulation, announced in October 2000, stipulates that all ozone depleting substances (ODS) have to be removed from refrigeration units as they are recycled. Historically, it has been a requirement to remove the gases from cooling circuits from recycled refrigerators, but as of 1 January this year, the ODS contained in the polyurethane foam of the insulation jacket must also be removed. The decision to remove CFCs is aimed at preventing refrigerators from being dumped in landfill sites where the hazardous gases will escape into the atmosphere and cause further environmental damage to the ozone layer. However, because there are limited facilities in this country to deal with the ODS in the foam, local authorities will have to store the units at designated sites until special mobile or static plants are established. Since the new ODS regulation requires refrigeration units to be treated differently, the traditional way of disposing of refrigerators - giant metal crushers that destroy the units but release the CFCs in the foam - is now outlawed. Other approaches, such as shipment abroad is also no longer permitted outside the EU if refrigerators contain any ODS. All refrigerators built after 1996 however, are still exportable, as they do not contain CFCs.

Against this background, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has estimated (from retail sales) that around 2.7 million domestic refrigeration units are disposed of annually in the UK, although this does not take in to account the second-hand market. The problem of storing large numbers of refrigeration units for what is expected to be a lengthy period has been exacerbated by an announcement last month from leading retailers, including Comet and Currys, that free "take-back" schemes are to be stopped when new refrigerators are delivered. As the responsibility for recycling waste refrigeration will now be borne mainly by county councils and unitary authorities, the resource implications on budgets are likely to be considerable in terms of transport, storage and treatment. In addition, the regulation now requires licences for the transport, storage and treatment of the refrigeration units. Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities are required to provide a disposal point for householders to dispose of unwanted refrigerators by accepting them free of charge at civic amenity sites. Although some local authorities also provide a free collection service for bulky household items, others will charge. The cost of removing these units will undoubtedly hit the poorest hardest. Not all householders have access to a car to take unwanted refrigerators to the local civic amenity site and others will try to avoid paying for them to be taken away. Ashley Collins, contract-monitoring officer at Herefordshire Council, believes that the end of take-back schemes and its knock-on effects will lead to an increase in fly tipping. As retired refrigerator refurbisher Tony Ainsworth argues, there is also the possibility that the home market for second-hand refrigerators will dry up. Writing in The Guardian last year (7 November 2001), he said that refurbishers may refuse to take old refrigerators back on the grounds that they will not be able to dispose of them in the immediate future due to the costs of storage and lack of facilities.

Government assistance however, has been promised. Last December, Defra announced a package of measures for councils to deal with the extra burden of managing the anticipated stockpile of refrigerators. This consisted of guidance on the storage of waste refrigerators, draft CFC-removal standards for industry and the promise of an extra £6m to assist local authorities with storage costs. Unfortunately, the funding package, announced as part of the Local Government Settlement, only covers this financial year, that is until 31 March 2002, and will not be paid to local authorities until 1 April. The promised aid has not been ring fenced and neither has the Government made any clear statements about whether any additional money will be available for the next financial year. A spokeswoman for Defra defended the Government's spending decision saying: "...We know that more money will be required but we don't know how much. We will review how much local authorities spend on storage and see whether a funding package that is more specifically related to fridges can be agreed". According to Bert Biscoe, Cornwall County Council's executive member for the environment, the county discards about 20,000 refrigeration units a year. He estimates that the cost of disposal could be as high as £30 per unit, while additional costs for storage amount to £3 per unit for the year. If these figures are added together, Cornwall CC could be looking at a bill of around £650,000 and that does not take in to account other related costs such as transportation. Councils across the country face similar problems. As Defra points out, a number of companies have said they will invest in appropriate technology once standards are known. The Government Department circulated draft standards last December and as one Defra spokesman was keen to emphasise, "our biggest concern now is getting contracts in place with local authorities". However, one obstacle that still needs to be overcome is the publication of CFC treatment standards for the plants by the Environment Agency. The standards are currently being finalised and should have been made public at the end of January. Various companies meanwhile have reportedly placed orders for the required plant from Germany, which crushes the refrigerators in special closed units, capturing the CFCs in liquid form so that they can be burned and destroyed at a later date (The Guardian, 14 January 2002). However, the demand has been so great that the first plants will not be delivered until July with most expected later in the year.

In the meantime, Shanks, a waste management group that runs two HTI (high temperature incineration) plants in England and Wales, has announced the UK's first licensed refrigerator processing capacities at Pontyfelin, near Pontypool and Fawley, near Southampton. According to Cynon Edwards, communications manager, the plants will shortly be processing 3,000 refrigeration units a week, with the potential to increase capacity substantially over coming months. While welcomed by some, others are more sceptical, particularly due to the costs involved, and at best the plants will provide only a partial solution. Some observers are also concerned by the implications of containers full of unwanted refrigerators travelling the length and breadth of the country to designated sites and claim that it will only worsen the environmental costs of an already expensive disposal problem. Mr Biscoe argues that "if a central plant is the only option, then major retailers could assist in the disposal of units by reinstating their take-back schemes and transporting old units to the disposal plant in returning delivery vehicles". At present these vehicles are returning to depots empty. As Mr Ainsworth explains, there is currently a huge hidden environmental cost that needs to be addressed. He says that many of the drivers collecting and delivering the refrigerators to civic amenity sites are unaware of the damage that is being done when they collect and unload the units. Thousands of units are, according to Mr Ainsworth, being damaged each week through mishandling and CFCs released into the environment. Also, he points out that the ratio of CFCs in the foam jackets of a pre-1996 refrigerator is approximately double that found in the cooling circuits and the only way of releasing them from the jackets is through compression. This is apparently occurring when refrigerators are dropped from wagons or dropped down steps on their corners. As Defra considers the various long-term options, one proposal that is being taken seriously is whether to make manufacturers responsible for dealing with the waste. The waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive, which is expected to come into force in 2005 (EHJ, November 2000, page 375), places increasing responsibility on the producer to carry the costs of disposal. Regrettably, this will also mean that local authorities will become responsible for dealing with washing machines, cookers, dryers and other household appliances. Commenting on the proposal, Ashley Collins said: "Making the producers responsible would ease the burden on local authorities, but this would need to be done fairly soon." He explains that if councils had to wait until the WEEE directive comes into force, most of the older appliances will have been dealt with already. He anticipates that the costs will ultimately be passed on to the consumer, probably through an increase in retail prices for refrigerators in order to cover for the cost of disposal.

But are there other alternatives that have been overlooked? Mr Ainsworth believes there are and sees the fridge problem as one of "red tape and bad planning". He argues that the local recycling of old refrigerators is the way forward and could create a cottage industry that might provide well-paid work for around 10,000 people. He says that many local authorities have yards to store refrigerators where recycling could be done by self-employed subcontractors. "With the right tools - available in hire shops - a fridge can be recycled in around one hour, with its parts ready for recycling and its CFCs ready for incineration," he argues. He also claims that there is a role for environmental health officers, who would monitor the yards and the recycling, and close any operations that breach safety standards. While companies and local authorities wait impatiently for the new plant to arrive, the prospect of "refrigerator mountains" for local authorities or unwanted units being dumped in towns and cities seems unavoidable. The Government may have been criticised for failing to act more decisively in its preparations for the new regulation, but wherever the blame lies, the knock-on effects of the new regulation are only now beginning to be seen.