The Local Government Association has called for producers and compliance schemes to meet additional council costs as treatment constraints disrupt fridge and freezer collections.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has urged electrical equipment producers and their compliance schemes to fund additional costs incurred by councils during the continuing shortage of fridge and freezer treatment capacity.
The LGA said its research had identified “dozens of councils” that had stopped or restricted services as safe storage capacity at household waste recycling centres became constrained. It published no council-by-council list or methodology.
The association linked the backlog to closures and disruption at specialist treatment facilities and a wider shortage of capacity, saying recent heatwaves were likely to have increased appliance failures and treatment demand.
Several councils have introduced restrictions. Derbyshire County Council, which normally receives around 1,500 cooling appliances each month, has limited refrigeration equipment to one item per household. Residents must also be registered to use its recycling centres. The council expects the restriction to remain in place for several months.
Worcestershire and Herefordshire suspended acceptance at their household recycling centres from 19 August, while Warwickshire said none of its sites was accepting the appliances as of 28 August.
The latest call follows warnings earlier in August from the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers and the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport.
Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations, producer compliance schemes take on their members’ obligations to finance the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of household electrical waste.
The code governing collections from designated facilities says contracted schemes must continue collecting WEEE from their facilities even after meeting their annual collection targets and are responsible for transport costs. Designated collection facility operators normally meet site-running costs such as staffing, training and health and safety.
The LGA is asking producers and compliance schemes to restore collections, finance alternative treatment or temporary storage and reimburse councils for additional storage, staffing, transport and management costs.
Councillor Arooj Shah, chair of the LGA’s Neighbourhoods Committee, said: “Producers must urgently get collections back on track and cover every additional cost councils face.”
Industry and regulatory response
The BBC reported that three of the UK’s 10 full-scale processing plants had closed in the preceding 12 months, following a fire, a corporate insolvency and a change of use. The Environmental Services Association said the closures had abruptly removed capacity.
Producer compliance scheme Ecogenesys said it had largely maintained collections, although a small proportion of its local authority partners had experienced disruption.
The organisation is pursuing additional storage and, subject to regulatory approval, exports to authorised European treatment facilities, as well as new domestic infrastructure. It expects some seasonal pressure to ease as temperatures fall but said additional capacity expected in 2027 would address only part of the UK shortfall.
Treatment operator Enva announced in July that it had secured Environment Agency approval for up to 2,000 tonnes of temporary storage at Corby, which it estimated was equivalent to approximately 50,000 domestic fridges.
Enva also expects a new treatment facility serving London and the South East to become operational in early 2027. The company says the facility will provide 35,000 tonnes of annual treatment capacity.
The Environment Agency has introduced a regulatory position statement allowing additional temporary storage in England under specified environmental and fire-safety conditions.
For local authorities, the measure allows up to 2,000 tonnes to be stored at a site at any one time after the Environment Agency has been notified. Other operators require written agency agreement, with the same express cap applying to unpermitted sites operating under a newly registered T11 exemption.
The measure is due to be reviewed by 1 April 2027. It represents enforcement discretion and does not change operators’ underlying legal or permitting requirements.
Defra told the BBC it was pressing producers to take the steps needed to resolve collection delays. Its guidance for the 2026 WEEE compliance fee says proposed methodologies could consider the effect of the national shortage of cooling-equipment treatment capacity.
The guidance does not establish an immediate reimbursement mechanism for councils. Methodology proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2026, after which Defra will publish them and consult interested parties before announcing its decision by mid-February 2027.
