Victorian company SKM Recycling dumped recycling collected from Adelaide councils in Melbourne
Thousands of tonnes of recycling collected in Adelaide has ended up in Melbourne warehouses — and far more is still in shipping containers at Wingfield.
Thousands of tonnes of yellow bin material collected from Adelaide councils was never recycled, instead ending up in Melbourne warehouses.
The unprocessed recycling was stored for at least two years by Melbourne company, SKM Recycling before it was declared insolvent this month over debts totalling $5 million.
The financial collapse of SKM has left several Melbourne property developers with the dilemma of disposing of the recycling — with much of it traced to South Australia through newspapers, discarded mail and drink containers.
The waste was trucked in shipping containers to warehouses rented across Melbourne by SKM while the company had contracts with various Adelaide councils to collect their recycling.
Thousands more tonnes of baled paper, cardboard and plastic was stored in 387 shipping containers at an industrial depot operated by SKM at Wingfield and Lonsdale at the time it closed its Adelaide division in February.
The EPA had ordered SKM to remove the containers by June but instead the company left them behind when its employees locked the gates and returned to Victoria.
The vast majority of the recycling is still there.
Melbourne developer Marwood Group is one of five Victorian companies stuck with an estimated 60,000 tonnes of recycling in warehouses leased to SKM before it went bust.
Project co-ordinator Carly Whitington said Marwood had no idea what it was going to do with the unsorted waste.
“We are really hoping the government is going to come up with a solution,” she said.
“We have gone to the EPA and been told it’s not their problem. But it’s not our waste. It is council waste and it is a government issue to sort out.”
Ms Whitington said one warehouse owner already had decided it was going to follow several Victorian councils which had contracts with SKM and dump the waste at landfill.
An EPA spokeswoman said SKM did not operate a facility within South Australia which sorted recycling.
“SKM has never had a material recovery facility (MRF) in SA, so all the waste that was collected in SA via kerbside collection was either baled and transported to Victoria for processing or remains at the company’s Wingfield and Lonsdale depots,” she said.
“The appointed receiver of SKM Corporate Pty Ltd, KPMG, is committed to adhering to all relevant guidelines and legislation in relation to the site.
“They are currently in contact with the EPA about the Wingfield and Lonsdale depots.”
Most of the material in Melbourne, Wingfield and Lonsdale came from yellow bins within council areas such as Onkaparinga, Unley, Holdfast Bay, Burnside, Campbelltown, Norwood, Payneham and St Peters, Adelaide Hills, Mitcham, Prospect and Walkerville.
Initially, SKM was selling the material to China but this stopped when it banned importing recycling last year, resulting in huge stockpiles
.
