WRITTEN QUESTION E-0082/02

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(25 January 2002)

Subject: Disposal of fridges EC Regulation 2037/2000

In a House of Lords debate on 20 December 2001 the UK Government position was stated as being that, following the Environment Council in February 1999, there were different views between member states in respect of the need to recover CFCs and HCFCs from insulating foam in domestic refrigeration, and that between 1999 and mid-2001 the UK Government sought a definitive legal interpretation from the Commission.

Further, it claimed that it was not until June 2001 that the Commission provided a final interpretation of Regulation (EC) 2037/2000(1) which made clear that it did require the recovery of controlled substances from the insulating foam of domestic refrigerators.

What representations did the Commission receive from the UK Government during the period prior to January 2002 regarding the difficulties which Britain would face in meeting the requirements of the Regulation because no dedicated plant to enable the removal of CFCs from fridges exists in that Member State?

(1) OJ L 244, 29.9.2000, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(22 March 2002)

Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 of the Parliament and of the Council of 29 June 2000, on substances that deplete the ozone layer was agreed to in June 2000. One of its provisions, Article 16(2) states that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) must be recovered from used domestic refrigerators and freezers. It also provided a grace period up to 31 December 2001 before this became applicable in order to allow Member States time to put in place the appropriate facilities for CFC recovery from used refrigerators.

Information on the contacts between the Commission and the British Government on disposal of domestic refrigerators under Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 was already given to the Honourable Member in reply to his written question E-0005/02(1).

The United Kingdom advanced a number of arguments in these contacts on the issue of recovery of CFCs from domestic refrigerators, in particular in a letter of 11 September 2000 and in the Management Committee meetings that are generally held every six months in order to progress activities associated with the regulation. The United Kingdom stated in its letter that it was not currently practicable to remove ozone depleting substances before disposal because of the status of the relevant technology and that there were no dedicated commercial plants to remove CFCs from insulated foam in domestic refrigerators. The United Kingdom indicated that this would create difficulties if CFCs had to be recovered from the insulating foam in domestic refrigerators. It used this as a supporting argument to advance its case that, based on its understanding, the Regulation might not require the recovery of CFCs from the insulating foam.

At the first meeting of the Management committee under new Regulation, on the 4 October 2000, a number of Member States explained that CFC recovery from foam in domestic refrigerators had been practicable for many years in their countries. They reported that CFCs were being recovered from both the insulating foam and from the cooling circuit of domestic refrigerators. 75 % of the CFCs is contained in the foam and 25 % in the cooling circuit. Subsequent surveys carried out by the Commission in early 2001 and more recently, reported that at least eight Member States had commercial CFC recovery facilities for domestic refrigerators, including CFC recovery from the insulating foam.

In a letter of the 8 January 2001 the United Kingdom reiterated its view that there were only one or two Member States with working plants capable of recovering CFCs from the insulating foam during the destruction of the fridge. The Commission met on 24 January 2001, at the request of the United Kingdom, with representatives of the British government and five other Member State government representatives. The United Kingdom stated that the major problem from their perspective was that, with the ban on export of refrigerators containing CFCs, there was no lead-in time allowing export of refrigerators to be terminated in a planned way. Furthermore, there were no facilities in the United Kingdom for CFC recovery apart from a small demonstration facility that would not be able to cope with the potential volume of refrigerators that would need to be treated. In a third letter of 30 January 2001 the United Kingdom came back to the issue of controlled substances in domestic refrigerators and freezers and raised the question of the interpretation of if practicable in Article 16(3) in relation to recovery of CFCs from foam in domestic refrigerators and freezers and whether this applied to Article 16(2). It had already been agreed at the Management Committee meeting of October 2000 that Article 16(3) applied to foam and that recovery from foam in domestic refrigerators was practicable.

In February 2001, the Commission together with British officials visited a British firm developing a prototype CFC recovery system from foam in domestic refrigerators, which demonstrated an interest by both organisations to see recovery technologies being developed in the United Kingdom.

(1) OJ C 172 E, 18.7.2002, p. 121.