EPA
The Land and Environment Court has separately convicted and penalised two waste operators, Minto Recycling Pty Ltd and Paper Trade Processing (Aust) Pty Ltd (Paper Trade), following prosecution by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
A subsidiary of Bingo Industries Ltd, Minto Recycling Pty Ltd, was found guilty of breaching its environment protection licence by receiving excessive amounts of waste at its former licenced waste processing facility in Minto.
Minto Recycling pleaded guilty to a charge laid by the EPA that it exceeded the amount of waste that it was permitted to receive in a 12 month period under its environment protection licence. The Court ordered Minto Recycling to pay $90,000 to the Environmental Trust.
Justice Tim Moore also ordered Minto Recycling pay the EPA’s legal costs and publish notices publicising the conviction and penalty in the Australian Financial Review, the Daily Telegraph, the Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, Inside Waste and on Bingo’s website.
The EPA alleged Minto Recycling exceeded their waste limit by 139,000 tonnes in 2016-17. Under the licence, the premises was only permitted to receive a maximum of 30,000 tonnes of waste per year.
The Court found the offence was on the top end of the low range of objective seriousness. The Court also found that Minto Recycling obtained a financial benefit from the breach that “was undoubtedly substantial and was a direct result of the Defendant’s offending conduct”.
The conviction comes after Liverpool Local Court separately convicted Paper Trade on four charges of breaching its environment protection licence and one charge of failing to comply with an EPA notice
/Public Release.
