Refrigerator mountain side effect of environmental rules

LONDON -- Protecting the ozone layer has spawned a chilling new menace to the English countryside -- abandoned refrigerators.

Residents say unsightly dumps of old appliances have sprouted across the land since people began secretly abandoning them in fields after European environmental regulations took effect Jan. 1 making it illegal to discard the ozone-depleting foam insulation from fridges and freezers. Many people think illegal dumping is the only option, since the equipment needed to destroy the foam in compliance with European Union rules isn't available in England.

"It has completely escalated," said Bob Partridge, a farmer who found 50 discarded refrigerators on his land near Padstow in Cornwall, southwest England. "We suddenly noticed from November that there was more arriving -- and when we came to look at it, it was mostly fridges."

The EU rules make it illegal to discard the foam because it contains chlorofluorocarbons that damage the ozone layer. Crushing old refrigerators for scrap -- the traditional disposal method -- releases CFCs into the air.

"From Jan. 1, nobody can throw a fridge away. A fridge is a dangerous substance," said Phillip Evans, co-owner of Evans Logistics, a waste-disposal company.

2.5 million a year

Refrigerators now must be crushed in enclosed "fridge eaters" that extract the CFCs so they can be destroyed. But Britain doesn't have any machines to deal with the 2.5 million refrigerators Britons throw away each year.

Critics say the government's lack of planning has spawned a "fridge mountain." Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, said the rules are "good environmental policy poorly implemented."

"There was no warning," said Evans, who says he learned of the rule change in the fall. "You can't just whisk these recycling plants out of the air."

Evans says his company expects to receive a $3.1 million German-made crusher next week, but needs government approval to use it.

The environment department blames the EU for confusion about the change.

Britain is not the only country confounded by the EU regulations.

A spokeswoman for Germany's environment ministry said rules governing refrigerator disposal were still in the works.

But Finland and Sweden say they are already using the new crushing units.