There it sat the other day, on the supermarket car park tarmac between the skips for the collection of plastic containers and aluminium cans for recycling: a household fridge - dead, defunct and dangerous.

Someone had taken the trouble to transport it there and abandon it, either because they were totally dim and thought that this was a Council waste-disposal site or because they were avoiding the modest charge which is now imposed by the authority's bulk-waste disposal service for handling these particular items.

Bulk waste by and large shouldn't be a problem for householders. There is absolutely no need to dump mattresses or sofas, ovens or washing machines or countless other redundant household items at the side of the road or on plots of waste ground.

You can take them yourself to Council waste centres such as Midland Road, Manningham; Bowling Back Lane or Dowley Gap. Or you can ring the Council's Waste Management team - (01274 431000) - and they'll come and take them away. And mostly they'll do it for free.

For instance, they'll not charge you to take away up to five items from a fairly comprehensive list that includes the following: bed-base mattress, bedside table, bookcase, bicycle, dishwasher, chair, chest of drawers, computer (but not monitors), desk, dining table, dining chairs (up to eight count as one item), display cabinet, carpet or lino (rolled 4ft length), double-bed mattress or base, dressing table, dryer, easy chair, exercise bike, gas or electric fire, filing cabinet, garden furniture, hob, lawn mower, bags of green waste, microwave, oven, sideboard, sofa, single bed, table, household refuse, vacuum cleaner, video recorder, washing machine, wardrobe, Welsh dresser.

Or you can ask them to take away up to ten bags of household waste. But you can only ask for these services up to four times in any 12 months, with at least two months between each collection. If you want them more often, you'll be charged.

The Waste Management team say that your waste items should be collected within 15 working days of your request being received. And they ask that you leave the items no more than 25 metres from a place where a refuse collection vehicle can gain access.

They need to be put within the property's boundaries and in the open. Operatives won't enter homes, sheds, garages, outbuildings etc.

What they won't collect, either free or for payment, are items that could be considered to be trade waste, such as: car parts or tyres, chemicals, asbestos and other hazardous materials, industrial packaging, rubble, stone, soil or brick, radiators, gas containers, industrial containers, bathroom suites, builders or DIY waste, cast-iron boilers, windows or doors, fitted kitchen or bedroom units. For those, ring (01274) 433725.

When they will charge you is if you ask them to collect more than five items from the list above, or more than ten bags. The sliding scale is: six-ten items (or 11-120 bags), £16; 11-20 items, £30; 21-25 items, £45.

And they'll also charge you £15 to dispose of your fridge, freezer or fridge/freezer. These are special items and their disposal is covered by EU regulations affecting the supply and use of all ozone-depleting substances.

These substances are CFCs or HCFCs, which are used in the refrigerant of the cooling system or as a blowing agent in the insulating foam. The regulations say they should be recovered for destruction, or for recycling or reclamation, during the servicing or maintenance of equipment or before the dismantling or final disposal of it.

According to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): "Many manufacturers stopped using CFCs as a refrigerant in the mid-1990s but HCFCs continued to be used as a blowing agent for the insulating foam for several years after. For this reason the majority of refrigerators currently entering the waste stream will require treatment."

So that person who dumped the fridge at the supermarket recycling site was passing on a headache and saving £15 at the same time.

It's a big issue. The latest estimate is that up to three million domestic refrigeration units are disposed of in the UK each year, with up to half a million commercial fridges and freezers in addition.

The latter are subject to the same provisions as domestic equipment, but local authorities aren't obliged to take them away as they're regarded as commercial waste.

Another category subject to special rules includes TVs and monitors.

The Council's website advises that due to a recent change in the waste legislation, it can no longer landfill these items so they can't be taken by either the regular bulk collection or wheeled-bin services.

However, they've arranged a special separate collection for domestic TVs and monitors (ring 01274 431000 for further details). Wrap them in plastic and leave them in the same place as you'd leave other items for bulk collection.

The Council adds: "If you do not want to wait for an available collection slot, you can dispose of these free of charge at the various household waste sites throughout the district. Each of these sites has an electrical cabin when any electrical items can be placed."

So what is it about these TVs and monitors that makes them require special treatment? Waycam Technologies Ltd, of Lincolnshire, is one of the firms specialising in dismantling them and sending the various components for recycling.

It says: "Cathode ray tubes are now listed as hazardous and require specialist equipment to recycle the various components correctly and safely.

"Most monitors are made up of a front clear glass which is the screen area that you normally see which is not hazardous and the rear part of the monitor which is normally encased in a plastic or other material casing.

"It is this rear part of the monitor which is the hazardous part with the glass funnel section containing up to 20 per cent lead, and it is also coated inside with a phosphorous coating which requires separate removal during the recycling process to prevent environmental contamination."

The process involves splitting the monitors into their two main sections and sending the non-hazardous front glass to the glass industry for recycling.

The company says: "The rear funnel has its phosphorous coating removed and is then sent either as a complete rear funnel or as shredded glass direct to specialist plants for the recovery of the lead or glass or to iron works for use as smelter."