A major Australian waste recovery company that has been recommended for a long-term Greater Shepparton contract was last year fined more than $600,000 for environmental offences in NSW.
At its March meeting, Greater Shepparton City Council considered a recommendation from director infrastructure Gary Randhawa that Cleanaway be awarded a contract for the handling and disposal of kerbside bin collection for a period of seven and a half years with an option to extend for a further seven and a half years.
The contract is part of more than $75 million worth of waste handling contracts being considered by council.
Councillors voted down the motion, though, and instead deferred making a decision until, or before, April 17, for councillors to be provided with more information.
Cleanaway was recommended for the contract ahead of local company Foott Waste.
In April last year, Cleanaway Equipment Services Pty Ltd was convicted and fined more than $600,000 in the NSW Land and Environment Court for two water pollution offences and one offence for failing to immediately notify that state’s Environment Protection Authority of a pollution incident at its Queanbeyan premises in May 2020.
The NSW EPA says the first offence occurred on May 14, 2020, when the solvent Vivasol 2046 leaked from the Queanbeyan premises into the stormwater system and flowed into the Molonglo River, with Cleanaway taking more than four hours to report the incident.
The second water pollution offence occurred the following day when water containing Vivasol 2046 again escaped from the premises and entered the stormwater system.
Reacting at the time to the conviction, EPA acting chief executive Jacqueleine Moore described the offences as a “serious incident”.
“This conviction and fine sends a clear message that all businesses are accountable to the people of NSW when it comes to protecting the environment,” Ms Moore said.
“In this case, not only was the pollution of the river a serious incident, but the unnecessary delay in reporting to the EPA contributed to a prolonged impact and clean-up by multiple government agencies in NSW and the ACT.”
The Cleanaway penalties included fines of $280,000 and $150,000 for the two pollution of water offences, and $187,500 for the failure to notify.
The court also ordered Cleanaway to pay legal and investigation costs of more than $305,000.
The NSW EPA also said Cleanaway subsidiary companies had previously been subject to EPA action, with a $15,000 fine in November 2020 for alleged waste storage offences at Rutherford and a $1500 fine for alleged poor record keeping at a South Windsor property.
Multiple attempts have been made by the News to contact Cleanaway to discuss its performance in other regions without success.
However, in July 2020, before the 2022 offences, the company posted on its website in response to media coverage of its NSW operations that it “is an industry leader in relation to setting standards for environmental compliance”.
The statement went on to say that where “issues of non-compliance with EPA licensing requirements have been identified within its operations, Cleanway addresses those issues quickly, including reporting and ongoing engagement with the EPA in relation to addressing those issues”.