Illegal chemical stockpiles, alleged links to organised crime and "shonky" operators are placing the Victorian community at risk, a parliamentary inquiry into recycling and waste management has been told.
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Senior firefighters, meanwhile, have also warned of an emerging "huge beast" - Victoria's growing stockpile of electronic waste, batteries and solar panels.
The parliamentary inquiry held the first in a series of public hearings on Friday, sparked by a string of toxic fires across Melbourne.
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Secretary John Bradley told parliamentarians Victoria faced two separate waste stockpiling problems: recyclable waste and hazardous chemicals.
The former was largely a result of China's 2017 crackdown on waste imports while the latter was caused by organised crime in some cases, he said.
"Clearly the China national sword policy, the disruption of those international markets ... did create significant shock waves through the recycling industry.
"Then there has been the discovery of illegal activity, allegedly ... organised criminal activity resulting in illegal storage of hazardous waste, which is a very different driver."
Parliamentarians grilled representatives from the Environment Protection Authority about what had been done to prevent the fires and pressed chief Cathy Wilkinson to guarantee no more blazes in licensed chemical stockpiles.
The state's 25 licensed sites storing industrial liquid solvents had been inspected multiple times in recent weeks and "the vast majority" were compliant with storage volumes, Dr Wilkinson said.
"There are three where we are doing follow-up work," she added, warning no inspection system could eliminate the threat posed by stored waste.
Dr Wilkinson said authorities had found eight illegal chemical storage sites and were improving coordination with other agencies to better locate illicit dumps.
Fire chiefs also backed calls for more to be done to locate illicit storage sites.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade Commander Mark Carter said dodgy operators were trying to get a competitive edge by undercutting opponents, shifting the risk to other sites when storage issues emerged.
He also raised the safety of firefighters, citing a January blaze in a factory storing used batteries where his personnel faced "exploding projectiles".
"What sort of equipment can we use for everyday firefighting that are also going to protect firefighters from projectiles?" Mr Carter told AAP, adding the MFB did not want to adopt military-grade protective equipment.
Victoria's acting Chief Health Officer Angie Bone said residents near major chemical blazes in Campbellfield in April and West Footscray last August were fortunate to have avoided major health concerns.
"You were lucky in those instance, exposure to the population was very limited for a very short duration of time," she said.
WorkSafe Victoria will front the inquiry when it resumes next Friday and is expected to outline the risk to employees posed by industrial blazes and chemical exposure.
The inquiry is tasked with providing an "urgent interim report" followed by a final report due August 13.
Australian Associated Press
