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News · 29 August 2026

Broken fridges piling up as UK processing plants close

Broken fridges piling up as UK processing plants close

Illustration: AI-generated for editorial context. Not photographic evidence.

A growing backlog of broken fridges and freezers is building at waste centres across England and Wales, according to the Local Government Association. The situation has arisen because of a countrywide lack of experts required for safe handling, and three of the ten full-scale processing facilities in the UK have shut down.

Reported by BBC · How we write briefs

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