Bradford is waging war on the UK's "fridge mountains" with a revolutionary new fridge-gobbling machine.

The equipment, which "eats" old fridges and freezers, and recycles the materials they are made of, is a long-awaited solution to the widespread problem of fridge-tipping.

Bradford has its own giant fridge dump, which is growing following new European Union rules making it illegal to dispose of untreated fridge material in landfill sites.

The dumped fridges, which give off cfc and hcfc gases from insulation foam, are a major environmental concern as the pollutant gases are one of the biggest threats to the ozone layer.

Under the new ruling, cast-off fridges must be destroyed by an environmentally-friendly process - but the regulations were introduced before such technology was available and old fridges are still being dumped.

Bradford Council has about 1,000 unwanted fridges from its waste collection service but says this could rise to 10,000. On top of storage charges the Council also faces a crippling increase of 1,000 per cent on the cost of disposing of each fridge, which could amount to £200,000.

Now a Bradford business is playing a leading role in the campaign to clear the mountains of redundant fridges and freezers.

John Hornby & Son - which deals with scrap metal, recycling, waste handling and construction aggregates - has completed a multi-million pound deal to install and operate the first fridge recycling and gas recovery plant of its kind in the country. A number of new jobs will be created.

The End-of-Life Refrigerator Processing Plant, currently being constructed in North Wales, will soon be installed at the Old Crown Dye Works recycling centre in Bradford and will begin processing the first units within weeks.

Company director Stephen Hillas, pictured, said the unit will have a capacity for processing more than 400,000 units a year - more than 20 times the number previously being disposed of using traditional disposal methods.

"The new plant will enable us to process up to 12.5 per cent of the 3.2 million refrigerators and freezers which reach the end of their working lives each year," said Mr Hillas.

"A total of 3.2 million fridges are sent to UK landfill sites each year, equating to approximately 600 tonnes of cfcs which could be reclaimed, and approximately 50,000 tonnes of metals, 1,500 tonnes of glass and 14,000 tonnes of plastic," he said.

"The fridge is broken down into separated foam, steel and plastic - all of which are of high-grade recyclable quality."

Mr Hillas said the new installation was supported by the Government and met strict Environment Agency requirements.

"By installing British innovation, Bradford will be acknowledged as a centre of excellence in specialist waste recycling and pollution control. Negotiations are underway with local authorities which will see fridges from as far afield as Scotland and the south of England being processed in Bradford."