The EPA believes more bags of soft plastics could be being kept at other sites, with officers investigating a potential seventh warehouse in West Wodonga.
REDcycle CEO Liz Kasell said at the time the company had been struggling to keep up with demand, with a 350 per cent surge in people recycling the plastic products.
“We are experiencing a huge challenge now because, thanks to the pandemic and everyone being at home and generating a lot of plastic packaging, we have seen increases of over 350 per cent in our network,” Kasell said on November 9.
Today, EPA CEO Lee Miezis said it was believed ”half a billion plastic bags” collected under the REDcycle program had recently been found in Melbourne, with many believed to have come from NSW and the ACT.
He said the EPA was mainly concerned about the fire risk of storing the plastics, with some being stored incorrectly.
He said officers were working with the warehouse managers to make the storage methods safe.
“We will not allow unacceptable risks to Victoria’s community or environment from pollution or waste,” he said.
Miezis said REDcycle’s operators had only told the EPA about some of the sites, warning other logistics companies: “If you have any of these soft plastic wastes at your warehouse, we need to know.
“For your safety and for the safety of your employees, business and local community, you must make sure that you’re complying with our environmental laws.”
REDcycle this afternoon released a statement saying it had fully supported the EPA’s investigations.
“REDcycle is assisting EPA’s ongoing investigations regarding storage facilities used to store and sort soft plastics,” the statement read.
“We have been and will continue to work closely with and fully support the work of the EPA.
“Our top priority is working to find solutions to convert this material into a desirable and needed resource for the greater good.”
The EPA said the discovery of the six warehouses came after it found in May another REDcycle warehouse containing soft plastics in Williamstown North which was not compliant with regulations.
