That is the key finding of a probe into the fiasco by a committee of MPs.
The Environment Select Committee’s report described as “extraordinary”, the failure of civil servants to put in place contingency plans to cope with the possibility that that a regulation on ozone depleting substances could apply to foam insulation, or to alert environment minister Michael Meacher to their concerns until they had sought clarification nine times.
The report said: “We find it extraordinary that the minister was unaware that there was a potential problem until July 2001”.
The UK has insufficient capacity to extract CFCs from its old fridges, as required by a European law that came into force on 1 January.
Transportation costs
The cost of storage or transportation abroad for more than 1 million fridges accumulated since the start of the year has already reached 6 million, and Mr Meacher estimated the total cost will reach 40 million.
On the confusion over the regulation's implications, the report said: “Whilst the European Commission must accept some blame for lack of clarity, the overwhelming responsibility for mishandling the implementation of Regulation 2037/2000 lies with the Government.”
Mr Meacher said: “I do not believe that British civil servants behaved in a deficient or improper way at all.”
But the report criticised officials for choosing not to heed legal advice taken in early 2000, which indicated the regulation could be interpreted as requiring the recycling of CFC bearing foam.
They had also “ignored or reacted very slowly to”, a host of warnings from interested parties such as local authorities, it added.
The committee said that “a similar situation must not be allowed to occur again”.
“Adequate time has to be allowed for local authorities and the waste industry to implement the requirements of new regulations in a planned, professional fashion,” it added, calling on the Government also to urgently re-examine the plethora of forthcoming waste disposal regulations and directives.
Mr Meacher this afternoon blamed officials for not telling him at an earlier stage of the introduction of legislation requiring the recycling of CFCs from fridge insulation foams.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5, he said that if he had known he would have talked immediately to European Union environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom about the implementation of the legislation. He conceded it was regrettable that this did not happen.
Mr Meacher said: “We now do have the space and storage for the fridges and there is no question of availability of space.”
Asked about the costs of recycling, he said the government would cover these.
The minister added that the UK currently had two mobile fridge recycling plants and will have three full plants in place by the end of July.
Each of these will be able to handle 300,000 fridges per year and this should see the backlog cleared by the end of October.
Costs
In the fridge recycling marketplace, current prices according to letsrecycle.com research have fallen to 14-20 per fridge unit. This is substantially below earlier forecasts for recycling costs.
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