Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
PRESS RELEASE
6 November 2001
For Use: Immediately
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Comhairle nan Eilean Siar PRESS RELEASE 6 November 2001 For Use: Immediately |
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Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has confirmed that from 1st January 2002, old fridges will go into cold storage until government finds an answer as to what to do with them.
From 1st January next year, stricter controls come into force on recycling white goods. However, at the moment there is no facility in Scotland or the UK which can extract gases and other fridge material in a way which meets the new European legislation.
Chairman of Environmental Services, Cllr. Angus Nicolson, said; "Local authorities are being put in an impossible situation and at the moment it looks as though we will have no option but to simply store dumped fridges until a UK reprocessing facility is developed. Even then there will be transport costs and we need clear guidance on who will pay those costs as it would be totally unreasonable to expect the people of the Western Isles to pay that additional burden.
We are working with SEPA and COSLA
to come up with a solution but we are facing enormous problems in terms of storage
of these fridges. We believe in the 'Polluter pays' principle; and the Government
should have legislated to make manufacturers collect and deal with these materials,
rather than abandoning local Government with an ill thought our policy".
Ends
Issued by Nigel Scott
Communications Officer
Tel: 01851 709389 (Work)
Tel: 01851 706412 (Home)
Tel: 07884 236103 (Mobile)
email: nscott@cne-siar.gov.uk