Recycling giant SKM announces cease in collection, councils left scrambling

Troubled recycling giant SKM has told up to 30 Victorian councils they’ll stop taking their waste. But the government has today scrambled to try and stop tonnes of recycling being dumped in landfill.

SKM has told councils they won’t take any more of their waste. Picture: Alan Barber

Thousands of tonnes of recycling could end up in landfill as councils struggle to redirect kerbside waste following the closure of recycling giant SKM.

From today, up to 40 per cent of recyclable material will be redirected from SKM to other recycling plants across the state, but a further 60 per cent is expected to end up in landfill.

The plans were announced today by Minister for Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio as 30 councils were left scrambling to find alternative recycling measures after the closure of waste giant SKM.

The recycler announced it will cease accepting and collecting recycling immediately, contacting local metro councils on Thursday night, notifying them of a “temporary” decision to stop operations.

Many councils have already made the decision to send everything to landfill.

We’re one of 30 councils affected. Our first priority is to find a solution & do it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we ask residents to continue recycling & reduce waste. https://t.co/Qn7CeWAYJk pic.twitter.com/qtaVOvcWyC

— City of Melbourne (@cityofmelbourne) July 26, 2019

Hume City Council today confirmed they were among those notified overnight and conceded that until a long-term option was established, recycling would be going to landfill.

“There is simply no other choice. It is simply unsafe to stockpile it until an alternative solution is found,” a spokesperson said.

“In 2019, it’s just not good enough. The community has every right to be concerned and demanding answers.”

Hume City mayor, Councillor Carly Moore, said: “This is frustrating and our immediate priority is to maintain the service for our community by continuing to collect kerbside recycling bins.”

SKM Recycling in South Geelong has stopping taking recyclables locally as it is at full capacity. Picture: Alan Barber

Brimbank City Council Mayor Lucinda Congreve said the decision had left them “frustrated” and “disappointed.”

“The temporary closure of SKM means that from today, until further notice, any recyclable material collected in Brimbank will go to landfill.”

“At this time there is no other viable option for the short term storage and management of our city’s recyclable material.”

“We are hugely frustrated and disappointed that our community has been placed in this situation once again.”

A spokesperson from the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group said talks were underway to help councils with a plan B.

But SKM hit back today, citing EPA restrictions placed on sister site Glass Recovery Services as the cause.

SKM spokesperson Rob Spence, a former Municipal Association Victoria (MVA) boss, said the damage was estimated at $700,000, telling ABC Radio it was a system failure.

“They can’t take any more [recyclable materials] without breaching their permits with the EPA, because the system is fully loaded.”

Head of EPA Victoria, Cathy Wilkinson insisted the businesses were treated separately and said SKM were free to continue trading, with no notices issued for any sites operating under their name.

SKM boss Giuseppe Italiano at his home.

“SKM is a different company from Glass Recycling Services (GRS),” she said.

“EPA Victoria has no current regulatory notices on SKM across any of their sites.”

“[But] the EPA has had notices on GRS since the March and April fires so this compliance issue is not a new issue.”

“What happened in the last few days is as a result of our inspections on site we found there were further compliances issues which meant that we issued an additional notice.”

It comes as the recycling giant was this week given a 10-day grace period in the Supreme Court to pay a growing pile of debts.

It was also revealed the company is facing further court action interstate.

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said the EPA her full support in deciding to shut down the Glass Recovery Services

“We fully support the EPA in shutting down yet another SKM facility that was non-compliant in order to protect the community from dangerous stockpiles.”

“Safety must always come first but we are working hard with affected councils to ensure the least possible disruption to residents during this period.”

Updated shots of SKM Recycling. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Premier Daniel Andrews addressed the issue at a press conference in Bendigo, saying the embroiled company had a “shady history.”

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“There are contracts in place, contracts signed by 30 councils with this particular provider and it’s everyone’s expectations that those contracts would in fact be honoured … They are obliged to deliver against those contracts,” Premier Andrews said.

“This is a temporary measure and we will continue to do the hard work to make sure it’s not a permanent measure.”

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