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The Auckland City Council will issue a clarification to Waiheke residents to warn them against trying to de-gas old fridges.
In a council advertisement in local papers, residents were advised to assist in an inorganic rubbish collection by de-gassing fridges.
The advice was seen by Friends of the Earth co-director Bob Tait, who said it was an offence to knowingly discharge CFCs - the type of gas in a refrigerator - into the atmosphere.
Mr Tait saw the advertisement in the Waiheke Marketplace, a weekly newspaper delivered to every home on the island.
"I am appalled the Auckland City Council is urging Waiheke people to damage the atmosphere and ozone layer ... It they should know better."
Mr Tait said people had been charged and convicted for de-gassing fridges.
He also said fridges should not be put out until the day before they were collected.
"Otherwise scrap metal plunderers might come along as they do in Auckland city and cut out the copper pipe or aluminium parts, releasing the gases."
A spokeswoman said the council would publish a warning that people should not de-gas fridges themselves.
"We had assumed they would know that," she said.
Fridges could be taken to the Waiheke transfer station, where they would be safely de-gassed.
