YORK residents can continue to dispose of their old fridges and freezers free, despite tough new legislation aimed at protecting the atmosphere.

But thousands of household appliances could be stockpiled in the city for up to a year until a company is created to deal with the harmful gases.

City of York Council has put together a plan to deal with the 9,000 fridges and freezers that are expected to be disposed of in the city in the next 12 months, following new legislation to be introduced on January 1.

The Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) regulations means that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will have to be removed from fridge and freezer insulation foam before the equipment can be recycled.

At the moment only the liquid CFCs must be removed.

But the new rules have come as a shock and as yet there are no provisions in the UK to deal effectively with the insulation foam.

The council has decided to continue disposing of fridges and freezers at landfill sites for the rest of this month.

But from January it will store the appliances at a Yorwaste site in or near the city - the exact location is yet to be decided - until there is a company in place to deal with the insulation. That could take up to 12 months.

The storage of the appliances and the subsequent disposal of the harmful gases will cost up to £60 per unit.

But executive member Councillor Derek Smallwood, who attended an environment meeting on the subject yesterday, said there were no plans to pass that charge on to individuals.

He said: "At the moment the thought of charging people is not crossing our minds.

"It's far more important to get it out of the waste stream in a proper, secure and safe manner.

"If we try to charge the temptation then is for fly tipping, for people to take it to a hedge somewhere and just dump it.

"That's no good to us because then we really have a problem of damage to the ozone layer."

The council currently handles 4,500 fridges and freezers a year at its household waste site in Foss Islands Road.

These were then collected by a metal recycling merchant, until the practice was stopped last month to allow the merchant sufficient time to clear any backlog.

But the council expects this number to increase to about 9,000 per year as about 50 per cent of redundant fridges and freezers are currently handled by retailers through take-back schemes - a practice which is being widely stopped because of the new regulations.

Updated: 12:14 Friday, December 07, 2001