News

21st October 2002

MEP highlights growing fridge mountain in Merton

John Bowis - Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Merton and Environment spokesman - was in Merton on Saturday 19th October 2002 with local Councillors - Tariq Ahmad & Horst Bullinger - listening to their concerns about the failure of Merton Council to successfully deal with the Borough’s growing fridge mountain. John Bowis also accused the British Government of letting down the people of Merton by its miserable failure over the EU recycling law. The Government failed to prepare local authorities in London for the implications of the law it agreed two years ago. As a consequence, many local authorities in London are unable to cope and the Government could face prosecution - leading to a possible fine - in the European Court of Justice.

Speaking from Merton John Bowis said, “In 2000 the government signed up to an EU regulation on CFC. This obliges the UK to remove CFC from the cooling circuits and insulation foam of old fridges – CFC destroys the ozone layer which protects us from potentially lethal radiation. However, at present there seem to be no facilities in the UK able to deal with this problem - which is why Merton Council sent around 1,500 fridges to Germany earlier this year, for the CFC to be removed. The government has failed to provide the facilities capable of extracting these ozone depleting substances, hence the fridge mountain in Garth Road that I visited this morning. I will be urging the government to follow the example of other EU countries who are so much better prepared for dealing with this problem than we are.”

Cllr Horst Bullinger (Raynes Park Ward) added, “It must be uneconomical to export old fridges all the way to Germany just to dispose of them safely there – any money saved could be better spent on improving the quality of public services for the residents of Merton. Only recently I was informed by Merton’s Cabinet member responsible for Environment and Safety that a suitable recycling plant for dealing with these fridges was found in North London. When is this facility going to be open, or is it operational, but can’t compete with the ones abroad? John Bowis MEP has seen for himself the scale of the problem in Merton, where still several thousands of fridges are stored and the extent to which the government has failed to prepare local authorities to deal with these old fridges properly.”