UK&#39s first licensed fridge reprocessing site opens.

To date, around 20 reprocessing plants are awaiting either planning permission or statutory waste management licenses as awarded by the Environment Agency in order to become fully operational. Polar Recycling was awarded its license four days ago, though so far is serving only one council in Conway.

The other plant, M Baker Recycling in St Helens should receive its license in August, though Julie-Ann Adams, the company’s client and marketing manager claims: “There will be no competition especially as we’ve got a large number of local authorities and retailers already signed up.”

The six-acre plant in Birkenhead was recently purchased by Polar Recycling – a sister company of George Major skip hire, from technology developers Clwyd Recycling for just under 2 million.

Polar Recycling claim the unit has the capacity for processing 400,000 units a year enabling it to handle up to 12.5% of the 3.2 million fridges and freezers which reach the end of their working lives annually.

Onsite facilities comply with European regulations brought in at the beginning of the year designed to prevent the escape of cfcs and hcfc gases from fridge insulation foam during disposal.
Managing director, Phillip Major said: “Our machinery supersedes any commitments to current directives – we use best available technology. In Germany, where many of the fridges are sent for reprocessing, they still have a residue of cfcs remaining in the foam at around 0.5%. In this plant we get only 0.1%.”

However, Ms Adams claimed that although the machines at M Baker Recycling comply with EA standards by leaving 0.5% of ODS in foam after processing. She said: “By reducing this further to 0.1% would require further energy use and would thus outweigh the benefits to the environment.”

Due to a lack of widespread technology in the UK for fridge reprocessing and a recent ban on sending fridges to landfill sites, stock-piles at local authority dumps are reaching saturation point.
And with new pressures from ‘producer responsibility’ directives, namely WEEE looming on the horizon for 2004-5, it is hoped that fewer fridges will need to be reprocessed as manufacturers’ design more environmentally safe options.

Polar Recycling hopes to open another operational plant later this year, again in Birkenhead in Merseyside.