By Casey Neill
The EPA has ordered a Dandenong South tyre recycler to send its stored tyres to another tyre recycler, or face fines.
Clean Energy Group received an Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) notice regarding its overflow site, where it was storing more than 12,000 whole tyres and about 200 bags of shredded tyres.
It cost the company $70,000 to remove the items and take them to a licensed tyre recycling facility.
EPA acting southern metro manager Marleen Mathias said the stockpile was a risk to the local community, surrounding industries and the environment, and its removal also removed any tyre fire risk.
She said Clean Energy Group had approval to store the tyres at the site, but the way they were stored and the large volume was the issue.
“CFA and MFB have specific guidelines that say there must be fire protection systems in place and separation distances between tyre piles and buildings and roads,” Ms Mathias said.
“The maximum tyre pile dimensions for outdoor stockpiles are 20 metres long by 6 metres wide by 3 metres high to restrict the available fuel in the event of a fire.
“EPA tightened tyre regulations this year to ensure the Victorian public was better protected from the risk of tyre fires from unsafe stockpiles.”
Ms Mathias said the company was also storing shredded tyres at another site and the EPA was working with the City of Greater Dandenong to ensure the storage was in line with EPA regulations.
Clean Energy Group has EPA approval to build storage and recycling facilities in Dandenong South, but is yet to receive EPA approval to start operations.
Managing director Mike Loone said the EPA was always changing its requirements.
“We collect the tyres at the site and when the EPA change their guidelines to how you should store tyres in a site, because they’ve been there previously they didn’t meet those guidelines,” he said.
“They wanted us to take the tyres out and restack them according to the guidelines.
“We were forced to do a deal with someone else who had the capacity to store the tyres.”
Mr Loone said the company was struggling to keep up with “the overwhelming amount of tyres out there” because it needed more funding to complement $6 million in private investment.
“We haven’t got any help at all from the government or EPA or anyone else,” he said.
“There’s just no support there from anyone in Australia.”
The Journal shared the Clean Energy Group story in July.
Mr Loone said no one knew what happened to 60 per cent of Australia’s waste tyres.
“They just disappear,” he said.
The rest end up in landfill or are illegally dumped, so he set up an Australian-first plant in Dandenong South to turn the situation around.
When a tyre arrives at Clean Energy, it’s shredded into a crumb, fed into a reactor, and heated to up to 400 degrees.
“Through that process we crack down the chemical elements and extract all the gases from the tyre and condense it into oil,” he said.
“Once all the gases are released, we pull out the solid scrap – steel and carbon black.
“The tyre oil we sell as a fuel oil to regional areas of Australia.”
