By Graeme Esson BBC News Online Scotland

The views of the tree-covered hills and rolling fields are accompanied by the ever-present sound of heavy machinery crushing the appliances.

Malcolm Todd and Simon Howie of Shore Recycling

The plant has been operating since a local entrepreneur took a "leap of faith" and decided to attempt a local solution to Scotland's ever-growing fridge mountain.

The appliances had been piling up across the country since new legislation governing their disposal was introduced in January 2002.

It meant that the CFCs contained in fridges had to be removed and destroyed.

However, there were no facilities in Scotland capable of performing the procedure.

"The country was not prepared for it," said Malcolm Todd, commercial director of Shore Recycling.

'Leap of faith'

"There was no infrastructure of plants to do that, therefore we ended up with stockpiles or, in certain instances, materials being exported to places like Germany, where they had been doing it for many years."

Shore Recycling was set up in March of that year by Perth entrepreneur Simon Howie.

He took a "leap of faith" and bought a �2m machine capable of recycling fridges.

"Although we did not have guaranteed orders, we believed that if we put a plant in place we would be ideally placed to win the business," said Mr Todd.

It is a significant investment, but we believe that this is what is required in order to help Scotland not have a television mountain Malcolm Todd Shore Recycling

That proved to be the case.

The plant, which can handle 350,000 fridges a year, opened in December 2002.

Shore Recycling now has contracts with 29 of Scotland's 32 councils, who have the responsibility for disposing of the 250,000 fridges which become surplus to requirements north of the border each year.

"We have provided the solution to Scotland's fridge mountains," said Mr Todd.

"There are no stockpiles any more, we got rid of them within about a year."

The plant takes six or seven loads of about 200 fridges each day, with appliances also being sent from a dozen local authorities south of the border.

Crunched up

Some 90% of each fridge can be recycled.

First the external workings and things like shelves are stripped out, leaving a white box which enters the machine.

It is then crunched up and broken down into its different parts.

The CFCs are removed from the fridge's foam insulation and taken away to be incinerated.

Six or seven lorry loads of fridges arrive each day

The foam is turned back into brick form, while the plastics and metals are also separated and recycled.

The plant has created 40 jobs and Shore Recycling has already expanded its business to take in commercial refrigeration and equipment like vending machines.

It is also hoping to capitalise on the opportunities created by the forthcoming European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Weee) Directive, which covers pretty much everything with a plug or a battery.

It will make electronics manufacturers and importers responsible for establishing a network to collect these items when they reach the end of their lives - and have them recycled or reused.

"There is going to be a requirement to deal with Scottish Weee, and that requirement is all the more immediate because televisions and computer monitors are now classed as hazardous materials," said Mr Todd.

The appliances are crunched up and recycled

Shore Recycling has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds buying a cathode ray tube (CRT) processing plant which should be operational by early December.

"It is a significant investment, but we believe that this is what is required in order to help Scotland not have a television mountain," said Mr Todd.

Part of the television's cathode ray tube contains lead glass, while the back of the screen is coated with phosphor.

The machine, which Shore believes will be the only one of its kind in Scotland, is able to separate the different parts of the CRT.

It is hoped that the phosphor will be recycled and that the glass can be sold back to the industry.