PAR Recycling, a subsidiary of Central Coast’s ‘yellow bin’ recycler, will appeal earlier fine
A subsidiary of the Central Coast’s ‘yellow bin’ recycler, which was recently fined by the EPA $33,000 for `multiple’ breaches, will appeal one of its earlier fines.
Central Coast
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PAR Recycling is appealing a $15,000 fine it was issued in February by the state’s environmental watchdog.
It comes amid claims its parent company, IQ Renew, was hard done by when it was fined by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) $33,000 last month for “multiple breaches” of its licence.
PAR Recycling Services was fined for environmental breaches at its facility at 95 Wisemans Ferry Rd, Somersby, for storing waste outside the building and for poorly stored chemicals at a different Somersby facility.
The EPA directed PAR Recycling Services Pty Ltd to take immediate action to appropriately store drums, bags and containers holding 18 different chemicals on November 14, 2019.
An EPA inspection of the site on Wisemans Ferry Rd, Somersby, found 15,265 litres of liquid chemicals and 6,550kg of solid chemicals stored in an area that did not have a bund or spill containment system.
EPA officers also discovered PAR Recycling did not have spill kits nearby to contain the chemicals in the event of a spill.
Despite a repeat visit from the EPA on 25 November 2019, PAR Recycling had not allegedly stored the chemicals in a containment system that met the required standard.
The EPA then issued PAR Recycling with a prevention notice requiring the chemicals be stored correctly or removed from the site by 29 November 2019.
The chemicals were finally removed from the premises on January 10, 2020.
PAR Recycling CEO Danial Gallagher, who is also the chief executive of its parent company IQ Renew, told the Express Advocate the Wisemans Ferry Rd site had sat idle for a year when PAR sought to address the EPA’s concerns and clean up waste left by a previous tenant.
“EPA stated that the bunds built were not to Australian Standards and issued the Cleaning Chemicals Penalty,” he said.
“We are requesting a review of the specifications provided by the EPA as we believe the works we undertook when first requested to do so were compliant.”
Meanwhile he said IQ Renew “unfortunately found ourselves in an unusual and difficult situation” when it was fined $33,000 for what the EPA described as ‘multiple’ breaches of its licence at its Somersby and Wyong facilities in February this year.
EPA Director Regulatory Operations Adam Gilligan said EPA inspections revealed multiple alleged breaches of their environment protection licence and the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.
“EPA inspectors found waste being poorly stored and in some cases the waste was being tracked around by vehicles into the path of stormwater, which had the potential to cause environmental harm,” he said.
“The EPA also alleges that on several occasions the operators stored waste in excess of their licence conditions and stored or loaded it outside approved areas.
“Waste which is poorly stored can potentially become windblown litter and end up in waterways and adversely impact aquatic life,” Mr Gilligan said.
The EPA fined IQ Renew $16,500 and issued an official caution in relation to alleged offences at its Pile Rd facility at Somersby and its Lucca Rd site at Wyong site, which included not submitting a monthly waste report to the EPA.
Mr Gallagher said no harm was done to the environment and all matters have since been addressed.
He told the Express Advocate there had been a build up because of delays by an “offtake partner” to get a licence from the EPA to accept recycled glass sand and increased demand from the peak holiday period.
He said further disruption was also caused when a down stream processing partner was impacted by bushfires.
“We are disappointed in the issuance of the Recyclables Penalty, nonetheless it is at the lower end of the scale with minimal potential for impact on the environment or the community,” he said.