A&R have a huge amount of experience in the safe and environmentally-friendly disposal of commercial fridges and freezers.

Once a commercial fridge or freezer has reached the end of its ‘working life’ every business must ensure the safe and proper disposal of that piece of equipment. A businesses legal obligations for refrigeration disposal are covered by three overlapping pieces of legislation.

• Environmental Protection Act 1990 “Waste Management Duty of Care”, explaining your general obligations surrounding all kinds of waste disposal. Business waste is treated separately to domestic waste, and includes anything generated by commercial activity even if the business is run from home.
• EC regulation 2037/2000 “Removal of ODS”, explaining how all refrigeration units containing Ozone Depleting Substances like CFCs and HCFCs in refrigerants or in insulating foam must have them removed in a controlled manner before scrappage.
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations (WEEE), explaining how businesses must reuse, recycle and recover electrical appliances of any kind wherever possible.

The combined impact of these three sets of regulations is that businesses in the UK must undertake the following during waste disposal.

• Classification of waste according to whether it is hazardous or non-hazardous. Fridges are considered to contain materials that count as hazardous waste.
• Registration of premises that store or produce hazardous waste (not usually applicable to catering businesses)
• Getting a permit for storage, treatment, transport or disposal of hazardous waste (not usually applicable to catering businesses)
• Storage of waste safely and securely. It is illegal to mix a hazardous waste with either non-hazardous or another hazardous waste.
• Transportation of waste safely off business premises, using only a licensed business to do so.
• Ensuring any waste removal or disposal businesses you deal with are properly licenced (and you must keep proof of this such as a copy of permits or licenses). In practice this means using a private company registered with the Environment Agency and get a Waste Transfer Note for the collection. Local waste collection authority sites like municipal dumps, tips and recycling centres do not generally accept commercial waste without a fee, and are likely to not accept commercial hazardous waste at all – certainly they are not legally obliged to. Your local authority will generally advise you on private companies who can handle fridge or freezer disposal.

Failing to dispose of refrigerators properly can lead to prosecution.

At A&R we are able to manage all aspects of refrigeration disposal efficiently and legally in an environmentally friendly manner. No job is too big or small as we have worked with all types of businesses from local independent shops to large multi-national retailers.