Some retailer collection schemes have already been stopped and the issue was also raised on BBC2's Working Lunch programme today. Retail group Comet pulled its take-back collections on Saturday, the House of Fraser, John Lewis and Argos have already stopped their collections and Dixons is expected to pull its scheme shortly.
Retailers are ending their schemes because their contractors are refusing to pick up fridges as they have nowhere to take them. The move comes ahead of the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) regulation which comes into force on January 1and will see CFC gases having to be recovered from fridge and freezer insulation foam before the equipment can be recycled. At present the UK does not have any capacity to remove and safely dispose of the CFCs in refrigerator foam.
Councils will now face an increase in the number of end-of-life fridges they will receive. And with the costs of fridge recycling being as much as 50 it is still unclear what funding will be provided from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to local authorities. DEFRA said that in the event that retailers stop their schemes “and significant additional numbers of waste refrigerators are collected by local authorities as household waste, or taken to civic amenity sites, we will urgently review the situation, including any increased financial burden on local authorities”. The Local Government Association is now thought to be putting pressure on government to provide up to 100 million year for local authorities or to delay the legislation.
Chaos
Mr Geoff Bellingham, technical director for Dixons, said: “We are hopeful that a solution can still be found, but the situation is in total chaos. We have no choice but to pull out, the guys that collect our fridges won't take them and we can't get rid of them. If we collect it councils can't take it because it becomes commercial waste.”
He added: “Once we stop it will be very difficult to reinstate, after a month it will be very problematic and we will probably have to look at shedding some vehicles. There is still doubt about the real impact that this will have. We are in an untenable position. The government hasn't moved quickly enough. From December no recycler will collect from a local authority and fridges will be landfilled. It is criminal.”
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