Correspondence from the Alan Whitehead,
MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport,
Local Government and the Regions to Dixons Group plc, 26 November
2001
Thank you for your letter of 19 October to Nick
Raynsford about the financial implications on local authorities
of the implementation of Phase two of EC Regulation 2037/2000.
The Ozone Depleting Substance Regulation 2037/2000
("the ODS Regulation"), which came into effect in October
2000 throughout the European Union, requires the removal of CFCs
and HCFCs from refrigeration equipment before such appliances
are recycled or disposed of. I can assure you that we are aware
of the implications for local authorities as a result of the recent
confirmation by the European Commission that the ODS Regulation
applies to CFCs and HCFCs in the insulation foam of refrigeration
equipment, as well as in the cooling circuit. The estimated 2.5
million domestic refrigeration appliances replaced each year in
the UK will not be capable of being exported to developing countries,
or sent to licensed scrap metal facilities. Whilst plant for the
environmentally sound destruction of refrigerators does exist
in other EU Member States, in general, and in keeping with the
proximity principle, we would hope that waste refrigeration equipment
could be dealt with within the UK.
At present, a number of retailers collect unwanted
refrigerators from householders when delivering new appliances.
The Government has met urgently with the white goods retail industry
and the Local Government Association to consider the implications
of the ODS Regulation. We will be including additional provision
for the immediate costs which local authorities face. This will
be announced as part of the provisional local government settlement
for 2002-03 at the end of this month. We hope that retailers will
continue to operate their take-back schemes. In the event that
they do not, 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.
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