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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 28 Feb 2002

Vol. 550 No. 1

Written Answers. - Waste Disposal.

Michael D. Higgins

Question:

15 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the steps which are being taken to ensure that there are adequate facilities for the safe disposal of domestic fridges and freezers, having regard to the requirements of the new EU directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6968/02]

Regulation EC 2037/2000 requires the recovery and destruction of ozone depleting substances contained in domestic refrigerators and freezers from 1 January 2002. In addition, European Commission Decision 2000/532/EC revised the EU list of hazardous waste to include, with effect from 1 January 2002, equipment which contains CFCs. These changes affect the disposal of fridges and freezers manufactured before 1994 which contain CFCs in insulating foam as well as in fridge coolant. While technology is available in Ireland for the removal of CFCs from the coolants in fridges and freezers, no equipment is yet available for the removal of the insulating foam.

The effect of these two instruments is that with effect from 1 January 2002 fridges and freezers cannot be dealt with by the traditional method of degassing, recovering the metal and sending the remaining waste to landfill. I understand that in the absence of treatment facilities in Ireland – a problem also being experienced in other EU member states – a number of local authorities have made arrangements for the storage of fridges and freezers or for their export to appropriate recovery facilities in mainland Europe; such arrangements may involve cooperation with private waste companies.

In the meantime, the issue continues to be examined by my Department with a view to establishing longer term solutions to this matter. Officials from my Department are also in discussion with the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland to see whether an all-island solution to the problem, with potentially better economies of scale, is feasible.
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