Fined following recycling fire

EPA has issued a $10,000 fine and is investigating with Fire Rescue Victoria a Derrimut recycling company that has had three fires so far this calendar year.

ReSource Pty Ltd recycles combustible recyclable and waste materials (CRWM) including household goods and e-waste.

On 4 March this year a fire broke out on the processing line of the Swann St facility. Internal fire management systems including a sprinkler did deploy but FRV units also attended.

CCTV clearly shows the moment at which the fire breaks out in recycling material potentially containing lithium-ion batteries..

ReSource Pty Ltd has a clear duty in the terms of its EPA Permission to inform EPA of such an incident in a timely fashion but did not, and it must also have controls in place to management smoke, including filtration, to prevent the release of unfiltered smoke to the environment.

“ReSource Pty Ltd should know that it has to comply with its EPA Permission. Smoke, potentially harmful to the environment and the community, was able to discharge from the facility through open doors and venting holes in the ceiling with no treatment. Their breach of the Environment Protection Act 2017 has resulted in a significant fine, and left the way open for further regulatory action,” said EPA West Metropolitan Regional Manager, Julia Gaitan.

“This was not the first fire at the facility this year. There was one in January and another just over a week ago (20 April).

“We are conducting further investigations with FRV, but ReSource Pty Ltd claims on its website that it “safely recycles e-waste in the most advanced facility in Australia, following AS 5377 standards to ensure positive environmental effects.” (https://www.re-source.au/) .

“Resource Pty Ltd needs to actually live up to their advertising claims. EPA will act to ensure they live up to their Permissions standard.”