Port Adelaide Salvage aborts legal challenge to three-year EPA ban

Acceptance has come years after Port Adelaide Salvage employees were sensationally caught on camera dumping tonnes of waste into an illegal rubbish pit. WATCH THE VIDEO

A three-year ban on a Port Adelaide demolition company transporting waste including asbestos remains in place after it abandoned its court appeal.

Port Adelaide Salvage appealed against the Environment Protection Authority’s decision in October, 2019 to suspend its waste transport licence.

It came following a number of “noncompliances” with its licence conditions and Environment Protection Act breaches, including the operation of an illegal waste depot at Highbury in 2012.

Its director, Maurizio Corsaro, also operated an illegal waste depot in Houghton in 2015.

EPA spokesperson Stephen Barry said the company was transporting asbestos that was not “appropriately wrapped or sealed”, putting the public’s health at risk.

Port Adelaide Salvage was fined $37,000 for operating illegal rubbish dumps in Houghton and Highbury. Picture: EPA.

“It was necessary to suspend Port Adelaide Salvage’s transport licence given the circumstances of previous and ongoing offending to protect the public and the environment,” Mr Corsaro said.

The company had its $54,000 fine – the biggest penalty in South Australia history for operating an illegal waste depot – significantly reduced to $37,000 by the Supreme Court in July, 2019.

Port Adelaide Salvage is banned from transporting listed waste including asbestos until September 30, 2022.

It comes as the EPA is currently investigating the company over the alleged unlawful disposal of waste at two locations in Sedan, 100km east of Adelaide.