Major all island service for recycling of waste fridges and freezers

10/04/2004

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

â‚¬1.8m from Environment Fund 2004

"Tangible dividend from North/South co-operation" â€“ Gallagher

"We must manage our waste more sustainably" - Smith

Pat the Cope Gallagher, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Angela Smith MP, Northern Ireland Minister for the Environment jointly launched today (6 April 2004) an all-island service for the collection, treatment and recycling of waste domestic fridges and freezers throughout the island.

Welcoming the service, the Ministers agreed that the initiative demonstrates "the opportunities that can and should be exploited by both parts of the island in developing synergies for the management of this and other problematic waste streams". Minister Gallagher said it represented a "tangible dividend from north/south co-operation". Minister Smith said "Managing our waste more sustainably is a major challenge for all of us and this is an excellent example of utilising innovative technology to remove the environmentally harmful substances and recycling the remainder of our waste fridges and freezers rather than consigning them to landfill sites".

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DEHLG) and the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland (DOENI) under the auspices of the North/South Ministerial Council have been working together with district councils and local authorities north and south in an attempt to develop an all-island contract for the management of domestic waste fridges and freezers in an environmentally sound manner. The initiative was developed against the background of new EU Regulations on ozone depleting substances, which prohibit waste fridges and freezers going to landfill.

The contract has been awarded to R Baker Recycling Ltd. an established firm operating a fully licensed and compliant recycling plant in St. Helen's Merseyside, following an EU Procurement process undertaken by the Procurement Service of the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland and the deliberations of an evaluation team comprising representatives from both Departments and from district councils and local authorities in both jurisdictions. The service involves the use of a local firm in the north (David Johnston Environmental Services, in Comber, Co. Down) and one in the south (KMK Metals Recycling in Tullamore) to collect and transport the waste fridges and freezers to Baker's fridge recycling plant in St Helens. The contract will run until 12 August 2005 the day prior to the implementation of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). From 13 August 2005, district councils and local authorities will no longer have responsibility for the collection and treatment of waste fridges. At that point responsibility for disposal of WEEE including waste fridges will transfer to producers.

Local authorities and district councils have been written to and invited to sign up. To date 31 local authorities and 25 district councils have indicated that they will participate in the scheme.

The service includes an innovative tagging system to ensure that a secure invoicing/audit trail is in place. This aspect will be of considerable interest in developing systems for the implementation of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) which will come into effect on 13 August 2005 and it is intended to monitor the scheme and ascertain as much useful information as possible on logistics and the development of efficient auditing and reporting systems which will be required by the Directive.

Funding for the management of waste fridges and freezers in the South will be provided from the Environment Fund. In order to qualify for funding, local authorities must ensure free access to civic amenity sites for the receipt of fridges and freezers from householders and take active steps to promote the availability of the service.