by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A medical-waste treatment company in Dandenong South has been fined over an explosion and fire that belched plumes of black smoke in 2022.
Cleanaway Daniels Pty Ltd pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to breaching its Environment Protection Authority (EPA) operating licence which prohibits burning waste at the Cahill Road site.
The facility, in a “built-up” industrial-two zone, treats more than 80 per cent of Melbourne’s medical waste, a prosecutor told the court.
It is about 1.3 kilometres east from homes and 950 metres from Dandenong Creek.
At 1.47pm on 8 June 2022, an explosion and fire started in the Cleanaway subsidiary’s hammermill, which was shredding waste at the time.
A flammable contaminant in a customer’s waste – possibly a gas cylinder – was to blame, a defence lawyer told the court on 25 November.
Due to the heavy smoke, workers were unable to activate the plant’s manual sprinkler system, she said.
Fire-fighting crews – with eight pumpers, a ladder platform and breathing apparatus support – brought the fire under control in about an hour.
They continued to extinguish the fire until about 7pm.
An EPA prosecutor told the court on 25 November that the factory lacked an automatic fire detection system that may have suppressed the fire.
He said a TapRoot report had recommended an automatic system after a smaller fire due to flammable waste in the hammermill four months earlier.
The recommendation was not “actioned” prior to the June 2022 blaze.
After the earlier fire, Cleanaway Daniels reminded and offered training to customers such as hospitals and clinics not to put “unacceptable” flammable items in their waste, its lawyer told the court.
They also swapped out bins from identified “high-risk” customers who had provided “unacceptable” waste, as well as brought in penalties for non-compliant clients.
Cleanaway Daniels workers were hindered from checking waste themselves due to safety risks from disposed syringes and PPE – especially during the Covid pandemic, the lawyer argued.
The same hammermill had operated since the facility opened in 1994.
When the equipment was destroyed in the fire, the facility couldn’t accept medical waste for 10 months. It lost $6.2 million in profits as a result, the defence lawyer said.
The operator had also worn the cost of a replacement $12.1 million autoclaves system to sterilise waste.
The steam-based system was said to all but eliminate the risk of a future fire.
Magistrate Julian Ayres noted there was no presented evidence of environmental harm from the blaze, nor were any workers or firefighters injured.
He found Cleanaway Daniels wasn’t responsible for the flammable waste but should have installed the automatic fire detection system at the time.
Cleanaway Daniels was fined $40,000, without conviction.
It was ordered to also pay $14,906 costs to the EPA.
