Another Melbourne recycling company has been banned from accepting rubbish, just days after a major recycling player went into liquidation.
Phoenix Environmental Group has been told to stop accepting waste at its Coolaroo facility – the third time Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority has slapped a ban on the company.
It comes after major player SKM Recycling was handed over to liquidators in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday, leaving at least 30 councils’ kerbside recycling programs in limbo.
The EPA’s Danny Childs said Phoenix processes construction and demolition waste, including timber, plasterboard, foam, insulation, cardboard, plastic and metals.
“The company has failed for a third time to keep its stockpiles in check,” Childs said on Monday.
“If it fails to comply with the EPA notice, it faces a fine of up to $49,566 plus a further fine of $8,261 for each day the offence continues.”
Councils in Melbourne are still coming to grips with the ongoing recycling crisis. City of Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp announced on Monday the council was fast-tracking parts of its waste and resource recovery strategy in order to stop recyclables going to landfill “as soon as possible”.
“We are going to increase the number of shared waste hubs for businesses in the central city and work with businesses to reduce the amount of waste they produce. We know that what works in our laneways will be different to what’s required for large apartment blocks and other residential areas,” she said.
The council is looking into compactor bins for laneways, and collecting pre-separated recyclable material like glass, paper and cardboard.
The council will also look into establishing a new large-scale recycling centre in Melbourne.
“The study will consider the potential size and location for a new facility as well as the number of municipalities it could service,” Capp said. “It would also consider the level of recycled material required for it to be viable, and potential markets for recycled materials.”
SKM’s insolvency in Victoria means currently the council has been forced to send 45 tonnes of recycling into landfill each day.
SKM also faces insolvency in Queensland and the company has faced pressure to remove more than 380 shipping containers of recyclable material from a suburban Adelaide site.
The company last month asked to be allowed to continue operating in Victoria as it worked on a $13.5 million deal with an investor so creditors could be paid.
But the company’s barrister, Reegan Morison, said on Friday no deal been reached and the company was not in a position to oppose the wind-up application.
Victoria’s environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, labelled SKM a “rogue cowboy operator” following a series of fires and stockpiling problems at its plants.
Last week, D’Ambrosio announced a deal had been struck with other recycling processors to handle 40% of the SKM workload. She declined to say which operators had stepped in or what the cost would be to taxpayers.
Victorians affected by recent factory fires – including at Bradbury Industrial Services’ Campbellfield facility earlier this year – are expected to speak at a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday.
More broadly, Australia’s recycling sector has been hit by China’s refusal to accept material and Malaysia’s turnback of waste, claiming it hasn’t been properly sorted.
