Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has charged Hopley Recycling Pty Ltd (Hopley Recycling) and two of its directors with a combined total of 66 charges for alleged breaches of the Environment Protection Act 1970 that occurred between 2013 and 2015 at a premise adjacent to the company’s White Hills site.
Since 2013, EPA has issued several clean up notices on Hopley Recycling requiring it to stop accepting industrial waste at the premises and for all industrial waste to be removed and taken to a site either licensed or permitted to receive it.
An ongoing EPA investigation has identified potential breaches of EPA clean up notices relating to:
- Permitting industrial waste to be deposited at the premises after receiving clean up notices requiring no further industrial waste to be deposited at the premises; and
- EPA clean up notice not being fully complied with, namely the remaining industrial waste had not been removed from the premises by the due date.
66 charges have now been served on Hopley Recycling and two of its Directors as a result of the above alleged breaches, the charges relate to:
- The accused to whom a clean up notice was directed, contravened without reasonable cause, the requirements of the notice, in that the accused received industrial waste at the premises;
- The accused to whom a clean up notice was directed, contravened without reasonable cause, the requirements of the notice, in that the accused failed to immediately notify the EPA that industrial waste had been deposited at the premises;
- The accused to whom a clean up notice was directed, contravened without reasonable cause, the requirements of the notice, in that the accused had not removed all remaining industrial waste from the premises;
- The accused failed to comply with requirement made by EPA Authorised Officer, namely the accused failed to produce to the Authorised Officer documents required under a Notice to Produce; and
- Permitting industrial waste to be deposited at a premises not licenced to receive that particular kind of industrial waste.
As this matter is now before the court, EPA will make no further comment at this time.