A mountain of up to 3,000 fridges and freezers is building up in Norfolk because of a national shortage of places to deal with the discarded appliances.
As these photographs of the former Mayton Wood Recycling Centre, near Coltishall, reveal, Norfolk County Council is among the sites which are having to store thousands of the unwanted white goods.
And that is a huge frustration for council leaders, who are calling on the government to help solve the issue as "a matter of urgency".
The problem stems from a shortage in specialised processing capacity required to safely handle cooling appliances, which contain hazardous gases and insulating foam, after the closure of three centres which handled them in recent years.
Some producer compliance schemes, which arrange and fund the collection and recycling of electrical waste on behalf of manufacturers, have consequently delayed or stopped collections from council sites.
Since the first week of August, only Norwich North, Norwich South, Caister, Dereham, Hempton, King's Lynn and Thetford have been able to take them.
While the council is able to send some fridges and freezers for safe reprocessing, that is not keeping pace with the number which are being received.
It means between 2,000 and 3,000 fridges are having to be stored at any one time.
The council said, as well as keeping them at the former Mayton Wood Recycling Centre - which has been shut since December 2023 - it was having to store them at other recycling centres.
Pat Gould, the Reform-led council's cabinet member for countryside, coast and culture, said: "We remain committed to doing everything we can to maintain disposal arrangements for these items in Norfolk.
"We have written to the relevant government minister, asking them to address this issue as a matter of urgency.
"Councils across the country are facing the same challenges, and the government must act to resolve them. We will continue to press for a national solution."
The council said there are some costs related to storage, but that they were being kept to a minimum, including by using unused land such as at Mayton Wood.
Officials said there is still no confirmed timescale for resolving the national backlog.
The council said it continues to work with Defra, the Environment Agency and industry partners, and is pressing government for a long-term solution.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, has been pushing for action on the issue.
Arooj Shah, from the LGA, said: "The backlog of defunct white goods is getting bigger by the day - they’re at risk of becoming a mountain.
"Councils are working hard to keep services running, but it is deeply unfair to expect them to pay to store growing stockpiles or pass disruption on to residents.
"Producers must urgently get collections back on track and cover every additional cost councils face. The government must ensure they meet their responsibilities and put proper contingency arrangements in place."
Under the producer responsibility system for waste electrical and electronic equipment, they are responsible for financing the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally-sound disposal of household electrical waste through their compliance schemes.
A Defra spokesman said: "Delays to collection or being unable to dispose of your fridge or freezer is frustrating, and we are pushing producers to fix this fast and keep disruption to a minimum.
"We appreciate the challenges facing local authorities, and are working closely with them, the Environment Agency and industry to manage the impact of capacity shortages, including allowing temporary storage sites."
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