30,000 disused fridges to be recycled More than 30,000 disused fridges are being sent off by Oxfordshire County Council for reprocessing and recycling.

Every year, between 20,000 and 30,000 fridges are cast off by the county's residents.

Old fridges contain materials which are harmful to the Earth's Ozone layer. These materials must be removed in special processing plants by law.

However, the council has had to wait for such plants to be built.

The fridges were being stored at landfill sites in Sutton Courtenay, near Abingdon, Ardley Fields, near Bicester, Alkerton, near Banbury, and Dix near Eynsham.

Since January 2002, it has been illegal to dispose of a fridge without removing the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Tony Brotherton, waste contracts manager at the county council, said: "Special care has to be taken when disposing of old fridges.

"Oxfordshire avoided the crises faced by many local authorities 18 months ago by sending them all into storage."

Now waste managers are sending the fridges to reprocessing plants in St Helens, Merseyside, and Slough, Berkshire.