The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had to explain the situation following inaccurate reports in the press that fridges are now classified as hazardous waste. And letsrecycle.com has also received queries asking how fridges can be sent abroad for recycling if they are classed as hazardous waste.
The confusion has resulted because fridges are included on the new European Hazardous Waste List, which is part of the European Waste Catalogue. But although the list was due to come into force on January 1, the “new waste items” are not subject to the special waste controls until the government makes the new hazardous waste regulations, which is not expected until the summer at the earliest.
A spokesman for DEFRA explained the current situation and said: “Fridges are not hazardous waste but may become so later in the year.”
And there has been concern from consumers over what the waste status of end-of-life fridges is and what this means to them. This is because some householders are having to store fridges in their gardens while they wait months for the council to collect them.
DEFRA clarified that even if fridges are put on the Hazardous Waste List it will not affect anything that the consumer does and explained that the list only effects the other end of the chain.
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