Technowaste has been exporting disused fridges and freezers to Holland on behalf of Devon County Council for the past five months.

Under the new deal, that process will continue for the next six months before Technowaste starts recycling them at one of its new UK plants.

Since June, Technowaste has taken away 14,000 redundant fridges and freezers from Devon's main storage site at the Punchbowl, near Crediton, to a Dutch recycling centre in Dordrecht.

The council expects to handle 36,000 fridges a year at an annual cost of almost £1m.

It is still waiting to hear when it will receive promised government aid to help meet the expense.