Britain's first refrigerator recycling plant opened in Newport last week. MERLIN HAYWARD looks at how a business opportunity has been created out of a 'green' issue

The recycling revolution taking place on Newport's dockside is set to be good for business and good for the environment.

And it's possible that the activity could expand in the city.

Sims Metal have set up Europe's largest dedicated fridge recycling plant to help dispose of old and discarded refrigerators safely.

The Newport company, which is based in Long Marston, Warwickshire, started construction on its £3 million recycling plant just over ten weeks ago and so far 1,000 fridge-freezers have been recycled.

A European directive states that you must be able to extract 283 grams of CFC gas from each fridge, and Sims Metal must prove that their plant is capable of this before they can begin full production.

CFCs harm the world's ozone layer and are trapped in the foam which makes up part of a fridge's cooling system.

The refrigerator recycling plant was developed by a German Company, MeWa, and its main function is to separate CFCs and pentane gas from the foam.

The central component of the shredding operation is the Universal-Querstromzerspaner, a large decomposition chamber where most of the action takes place.

MeWa claims it can shred up to 11 refrigerators at once. The tightly-compacted shredding space reduces wear and tear on the shredding hammers, reducing overall production costs, and the pressurised shredder forces CFCs out of the chamber and into a storage tank where they are liquefied and collected.

After all the dangerous emissions are recovered, the shredded metal and plastics pass through a drying chamber. Conventional current systems and magnetic separators complete the process by distinguishing metal from plastics.

The system recovers 99.9% of the ferrous metals. Copper and aluminium scrap are recovered with a purity rate of 99% and secondary plastics and foams are recovered with 95% purity. The separated materials are then sold.

Until Sims Metal opened the plant, fridges had to be shipped to Germany by scrap merchants, where they underwent a similar process. This new plant means that it will now be cheaper to dispose of our old refrigerators in Wales.

Managing director Graham Davy received a £250,000 Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant from the National Assembly to help fund the business.

He said that the combination of grant funding, Sims' world-class recycling reputation and the excellent transport links of South Wales made Newport a compelling case for investment.

Sims Metal aims to extract 300 grams of CFCs from each unit and dispose of 300,000 fridges in their first year - at least ninety tons of harmful CFCs each year. These gases will be burnt off elsewhere in the UK with no adverse affect on the environment.

lOld fridges and freezers can now be offloaded free of charge at Newport's Civic Amenity site or collected by the council for a £15 fee.