Mountains of broken fridges pile up after summer heatwave

There are thousands of fridges (Picture: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)

A pile of broken fridges and freezers piling up after the summer’s heatwaves triggered a recycling crisis across Britain.

More than 30,000 abandoned fridges and freezers are piled up at just one council-run recycling centre, which is now at capacity.

The UK had its hottest summer in history this year, with records for the warmest day repeatedly broken.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of older fridges and freezers broke down.

The abandoned appliances cannot be crushed with other scrap because of harmful refrigerant gases, so must instead be taken to specialist processing centres.

But Britain’s processing network has been hammered by a string of closures leading to stockpiles, like the one at Mayton Wood recycling site in Norfolk.

The fridges need to be processed at a particular facility (Picture: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)

A Norfolk County council spokesperson said: ‘This is a national issue brought about by an authorised treatment plant going into administration in November 2025 and a recent fire at another authorised treatment plant.

‘Work is still ongoing to clear the existing backlog, and we are not yet able to resume accepting these items at our recycling centres.

‘This is a national issue and we are waiting for updates from our contractor on when this is likely to be fully resolved.’

Three of the UK’s 10 full-scale plants have shut in the past year following a fire, a bankruptcy and a change of use – while extreme temperatures have squeezed the remaining sites.

Facilities are also unable to operate in temperatures above 30C.

In hot weather, fridges and freezers are more likely to fail, meaning there are more appliances to process.

Fridges are more likely to fail in hot weather (Picture: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)

By late August, 26 councils had suspended fridge collections, including authorities in Bradford and parts of Gloucestershire, Durham and Nottinghamshire.

Norfolk County Council has now restricted fridge and freezer drop-offs to its seven biggest recycling centres as temporary storage fills up.

The council normally operates 19 recycling centres across the county.

Kate Murrell, assistant director for waste at Norfolk County Council, said the Mayton Wood site was being used as a short-term solution but was already nearing capacity.

The authority is urging ministers to help unblock the system and ensure manufacturers and producer compliance schemes meet their responsibility to fund the collection and treatment of electrical waste.

Under the producer responsibility system, larger electrical manufacturers must join approved compliance schemes which take on their obligations to finance the collection, treatment and environmentally safe disposal of waste appliances.

The short-term solution is already nearly at capacity (Picture: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)

The Environment Agency has also allowed fridges and other cooling equipment to be stored temporarily at sites which would not normally be licensed to hold them, provided certain conditions are met.

Across the country, dozens of councils have restricted or suspended collections, raising fears unwanted appliances could instead be dumped illegally.

The Local Government Association has called for urgent government action, warning councils cannot be expected to keep paying to store ever-growing stockpiles.

Some UK fridges are now being sent further afield to Scotland or even Europe for processing.

Industry figures expect further UK processing capacity to become available in 2027, but have warned more long-term investment will be needed to make the system more resilient.

Defra says it is working with manufacturers, compliance schemes and councils, and has stressed that producers remain responsible for clearing local authority sites.

The crisis comes as the government steps up its wider crackdown on illegal waste dumping and fly-tipping.

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