Cade Lucas
A Brooklyn recycling business has been shut down due to health and environmental risks and a continued lack of compliance.
Limbourne Group Pty Ltd, trading as Apex Waste Control, can no longer operate a waste transfer facility after the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) revoked its permission to do so on October 24 following its failure to comply with the several regulatory notices.
The director of the skip bin hire and material recycling business, Nicholas Limbourne, was also deemed not a fit and proper person to operate a business with EPA permission.
The EPA’s decision to revoke permission came after the company was found guilty and fined $45,000 by the Melbourne Magistrates Court in May for failing to comply with notices issued in relation to a burning stockpile of waste found at a property in Great Western.
The stockpile, which included bricks, soil, timber, plastic, tiles and cement sheet, had been set on fire and left to smoulder for weeks before the CFA was notified.
The EPA notices required Limbourne Group to prepare an emergency management plan and fire risk assessment, stop accepting waste, provide documentation to help track the collection and receival of waste, and make sure its stockpiles of combustible and recyclable waste comply with safety regulations.
The company failed to comply with all of them.
In its decision handed down on May 27, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court also found Mr Limbourne had illegally deposited industrial waste by burning at the property in Great Western, while the owner, Tombell Limsed Pty Ltd, was fined $3000 and ordered to remove the industrial waste from its premises.
EPA Victoria western metropolitan regional manager Jeremy Settle said the case had a clear message for businesses everywhere.
“EPA regulatory notices are there to protect the environment and the community, and must be taken seriously,” Mr Settle said.
Most businesses do their best to meet their responsibilities under the Environment Protection Act, but there is no option of ignoring it and hoping it will go away, for those who don’t.”
