After fires, landowners, farmers and authorities may need to dispose of large amounts of waste. This may include:
- building rubble
- asbestos
- farm waste, such as dead animals and spoilt milk.
Fires can also release many pollutants into the local environment, impacting air and water quality.
Large volumes of water used to put out a fire can be mixed with foams or other chemicals used to slow the spread or intensity of a fire (fire retardants).
Firewater run-off may also contain contaminants from what has been burnt, such as plastics, chemicals and building materials.
Waste from fires and the law
Waste from fires may be industrial waste. There are waste duties that apply to managing, transporting and depositing industrial waste. Some waste from fires may be pre-classified as reportable priority waste. You need a permission to transport this waste. To learn more, visit Understand your waste obligations and duties.
The general environmental duty applies to all activities involving waste from fires.
You cannot dump waste after a fire. It's illegal to dump, leave or bury any kind of waste at a location that's not lawfully authorised to accept it, including on private property. You must dispose of waste to a place authorised to receive it (lawful place).
In an emergency, we can issue a temporary authorisation for waste discharge or disposal. This helps people to manage waste that would usually require a permission from us.
If waste from fires has contaminated land or groundwater, these duties may apply:
If there is an incident that harms or threatens to harm human health or the environment, you must report it as soon as you become aware of it. If you're responsible for a pollution incident from your waste activities, the duty to take action to respond to harm caused by a pollution incident applies to you.
Our role in waste from fires
During a fire, our role is to provide support to emergency response agencies. We're a technical support agency. This means we provide technical and scientific information and advice to emergency and recovery services. Learn more about our role in an emergency.
We also support local government and clean-up operators to make sure waste goes to the right places.
We monitor air and water quality at locations across Victoria to identify and understand risks from pollution, such as smoke causing air pollution and run-off from industrial fires. The data we collect supports our daily air and water quality forecasts.
Learn more about how we monitor the quality of the environment.
Impact of waste from fires on your health and the environment
Visit Asbestos waste to learn about the health risks of asbestos and how to dispose of asbestos after a fire.
Industrial fires looks at the impact of fires at industrial sites and what you can do to protect your health.
Fire retardants and health has information about the effects of fire retardants and how to protect your health.
Firewater run-off explains what to do if waterways are impacted by firewater run-off.
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