• Home
  • Foreword
• Introduction
  • Acknowledgements and contributors
  • Using the guide
  • Abbreviations
  • Who should use the guide
  • What is HHW?
  • Data on the number of HWRCs accepting trade waste and tonnage data
  • Dealing with trade waste
  • Waste Strategy for England
  • Local authority waste pages
  • Business resource efficiency and waste advice
• Legislation
• Definition of waste
• The European Waste Catalogue (EWC)
• The Hazardous Waste Regulations
• What is hazardous waste
• The Hazardous Waste Regulations (and domestic waste)
• Asbestos
• Seperately collected fractions
• The Hazardous Waste Regulations (and business waste)
• Premises notification
• Site inspections
• Consignment notes and acceptance at transfer stations
• Record keeping, inventory and consignee returns
• Duty of care
• Health and safety
• Environmental permitting
• Landfill
• Staff competencies
• Ozone Depleting Substances Regulations
• Restriction of Hazardous Substances Regulations
• International shipment of waste
• Manufacture and use of chemicals
• Regulations in the devolved administrations
  • Scotland
  • Northern Ireland
  • Cross-UK border issues
• European legislation in development
• Producer responsibility
  • Batteries
  • Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment(WEEE)
  • End of Life Vehicles (ELV)
  • Decorative paint
• Key issues
  • Contracts and service specifications
  • Risk assessments
  • Site security
  • Segregating HHW from households
  • Minimum service provision
  • Separation of HHW items from mixed waste containers
  • Disposal costs
  • The Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) (Amendment) CHIP Regulations 2005
  • Staff competences and training
  • Communication with householders and businesses
    • Signage
    • Verbal communication
    • Leaflets, press releases and websites
• Acceptance and storage of household hazardous type waste
  • Storage and segregation options
  • Asbestos
  • Automotive batteries
  • Clinical waste
  • Explosives
  • Fire extinguishers
  • Gas bottles
  • Household and garden chemicals
  • Household batteries
  • Motoring products
  • Oil and oil filters
  • Paints and related products
  • Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
  • Fluorescent lighting tubes (gas discharge lamps)
  • Cooling appliances containing refrigerants (fridges and freezers)
  • Display equipment containing cathode ray tubes (TVs and monitors)
  • Smoke alarms
  • Other problematic wastes
  • Aerosols
  • Radioactive wastes
  • Tyres
  • Vegetable oil
• Key issues for businesses
  • Duty of care
  • Storing and managing hazardous waste at your site
  • Transfer and transportation
  • Using electronic consignment notes
  • SMEs and the Landfill Regulations
  • Asbestos
    • Asbestos in the construction and building trades
    • Businesses that own/occupy bulidings containing asbestos
  • Portable batteries
  • Automotive batteries
  • Vehicle owners and operators
  • Clinical Waste
  • Fire extinguishers
  • Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
    • Producers of EEE
    • Distributors of EEE
    • End users of EEE
    • Fluorescent lighting tubes (gas discharge lamps)
    • Cooling appliances containing refrigerants (fridges and freezers)
  • Gas cylinders
  • Chemicals and solvents
  • Tyres
  • Motoring products (including oil)
  • Paint
  • Vegetable oil
  • Potential support and solutions for buisness
• Case studies
• Minimising trade abuse at Haverton Hill HWRC
• Managing HHW at Redbridge Household Waste Recycling Centre
• Communicating with SMEs
• Accepting SME wastes in West Sussex
  • Managing hazardous WEEE, specifically TVs and fridges
  • Acccepting household type WEEE from Businesses
• Collecting IT WEEE from business in Scotland
• Distributor Take Back Scheme (WEEE)
• Battery collections
• Hampshire County Council's Waste Acceptance Policy
• Cost of collecting chemicals and other HHW at HWRCs
• Communication with the public on HHW issues
• Corporation of London householder and SME collection
• Dealing with traders at Durham County Council HWRCs
• Fly-tipping
• Private sector collections from SMEs
• Community RePaint
• Case Studies available on external websites
• Links
• Household Hazardous Type Waste Products List

Fridges and freezers have been subject to the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Regulations (2037/2000/EC) since January 2002. All waste refrigeration appliances containing ODS (e.g. CFCs) must be sent to specialist reprocessors.

Most refrigerators reaching the waste stream in the UK are between 10 and 15 years old, and are therefore likely to contain ODS. Units manufactured after 1994 are unlikely to contain CFCs.

If a DCF can accommodate fridges and freezers, good practice for WEEE storage suggests a site requires:

• impermeable surfaces (with provision for spillage collection facilities and, where appropriate, decanters and cleanser-degreasers)
• weather-proofing for appropriate areas
• appropriate containers and suitable signage to guide users.

Many fridges and freezers brought to HWRCs by members of the public may be potentially reusable. Many areas will have social enterprises that can provide a refurbishment service, and they will also be able to distribute these goods to people in need. However, potential for reuse is likely to be drastically reduced if equipment is allowed to stand outside in poor weather conditions. Therefore, if reuse of fridges and freezers from an HWRC is to be arranged, provision of a covered area would be a priority.

HWRC operators who register their sites as DCFs under the regulations will need to consult with producers of electrical and electronic equipment, or the organisations carrying out collections from DCFs on their behalf, as to  the possibility of reuse.

Defra has produced guidance on the storage and disposal of fridge freezers.

Polystyrene can be found in fridges/freezers etc as an insulator (and is a commonly used packaging material). The pentane within the polystyrene is flammable. HSE has published guidance on how to address the hazards.