Over 42,000 old fridges and freezers were collected in the last seven months under a new recycling scheme for the Republic and Northern Ireland, according to figures released yesterday.
As part of the pilot scheme, introduced to prevent against the build-up of a mountain of electrical waste in the country, the old appliances were shipped to England for recycling.
It had been feared that there would be a large build-up of old freezers and fridges, following new European regulations which banned them being dumped in landfills.
Many of the older appliances contain CFCs, toxic cooling gases whose release into the atmosphere have been blamed on the depletion of the Ozone Layer.
Under the scheme, which is being run jointly by the Department of the Environment and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage service, the appliances are shipped to a Merseyside recycling plant for dismantling.
Metal and other components are recycled, but the gases are sent for incineration while hard plastic components are still being sent for landfill.
Announcing the figures yesterday the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said that the scheme in the Republic would in future be funded by the Environment fund, meaning that householders should not be charged for disposing of their old fridges.
While there will be no door-to-door collection service, local authorities will have to ensure free access to civic amenity sites for the receipt of fridges and freezers from householders and "take active steps to promote the availability of the service".
The scheme is one of the first North/South waste management initiatives and, because of its success, Mr Cullen said that future cross-border collaborations were being actively considered.
Regulations to come into force next year will require manufacturers to assume responsibility for collecting and disposing of old electrical goods.