Victoria's environmental watchdog has laid charges against recycling firm SKM Services for a massive blaze in the city's north that burnt for more than a week and sent toxic smoke over neighbouring suburbs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Environment Protection Authority on Thursday laid the charges in the Magistrates Court against SKM over their July 2017 fire, which occurred at its waste recycling site in Coolaroo.
SKM is responsible for the recycling of almost half of Melbourne's waste, and in 2017 its vast Coolaroo stockpile of plastic and paper caught fire.
The fire, 19 kilometres from the CBD, blanketed Melbourne's northern suburbs in thick, acrid smoke, forcing nearby residents and businesses to evacuate.
The fire resulted in what EPA chief executive Cathy Wilkinson caled "a significant pollution event which ... had the potential to be harmful to humans and the environment".
Thirty-two of Victoria’s 79 councils have contracts with SKM to take their recycling.
In February this year, fearing a repeat of the 2017 fire, the EPA shut down SKM's Coolaroo site and another in Laverton North.
Since then, councils with a contract to send their recycling to SKM have continued to collect household waste, but most have had little option except to then dump it in landfill.
Thousands of tonnes of material have now gone to the tip instead of being re-used.
The EPA's Dr Wilkinson said in February that large amounts of plastic and other waste stockpiled at SKM's Coolaroo and Laverton North centres were too dangerous, leading to the shutdown of the facilities.
"These waste stockpiles could pose a significant risk and challenge for firefighting agencies if ignited," she said.
"Fire water run off could also enter waterways and have long-lasting impacts on the environment due to the toxic contaminants."
An EPA spokesman on Friday declined to answer any other questions about the charges laid against SKM over 2017's fire under the Environment Protection Act. He would not say what fines the company and its director Robert Italiano faced as a result of the charges.
While the EPA refused to be drawn on SKM’s potential penalties, the owner of land in Stawell where more than 1 million tyres were removed by the authority due to the fire risk was last year ordered to repay the $4.5 million clean-up cost. It also faced fines from the EPA topping $1 million for ignoring orders to remove the notorious fire hazard.
Angered by SKM’s failure to run their Laverton North and Coolaroo plants properly, a handful of councils have this month locked in short-term contracts with recycler Visy.
On Friday, some waste companies were told by the Victorian Waste Management Association that the EPA was likely to allow SKM to reopen its Laverton North and Coolaroo sites next Tuesday or Wednesday.
The sites are set to re-open in stages so that the waste that has been stockpiled by some councils does not overwhelm it.
One industry source said the clean-up was being complicated by some landfills refusing to take material from SKM, because of concerns the company would not ultimately be able to pay the tip fees.
"Cleanaway is taking a heap of it," the source said, at the waste company's Melbourne Regional Landfill in Ravenhall. "But other places have been less willing."
The Age has attempted to contact SKM repeatedly, without success.
