It’s taken more than a decade but the New South Wales environment watchdog is now talking tough when it comes to the safety of recycled landscaping materials.
Last week the chief executive of the state’s Environment Protection Authority, Tony Chappel, announced a crackdown on waste facilities producing a type of cheap landscaping soil – called recovered fines – made from recycled construction and demolition waste.
This follows a 15-month investigation and countless stories by Guardian Australia that revealed long-term, systemic breaches of rules intended to ensure that soil fill made from recycled waste is safe for consumers and the environment.
The state went into crisis mode earlier this year when asbestos was detected in mulch at more than 70 sites in Sydney. But the shortcomings of the oversight of recovered fines are on a much larger scale.
Since at least 2013 the EPA had been aware that soil products potentially contaminated with asbestos, lead and other chemicals, as well as excess glass and plastics, were making their way into public spaces and back yards.
One internal document obtained by Guardian Australia under government information public access laws estimated that up to 658,000 tonnes of material that had not complied with state regulations could have been used across the state every year, including in sensitive areas such as childcare centres, parks, schools and residential developments.
Two EPA investigations – one in 2013 and one in 2019 – found facilities producing the landscaping materials were breaching rules that require routine testing for a range of physical and chemical contaminants. In one alarming revelation, the EPA found in 2019 that almost half of the waste facilities producing recovered fines were asking private laboratories to retest samples found to contain contamination until they passed.
Thanks to information tabled in the state’s parliament, we know some of the state’s biggest waste companies operated some of the facilities responsible for the breaches and retesting.
Late last week the EPA said it was taking action after a fresh round of testing, completed this year, found seven out of 13 facilities it inspected had asbestos in their recovered fines. Six facilities had recovered fines that contained glass and chemicals above the legal limits and pH levels outside the allowed range.
Chappel has promised significant changes to regulations are under consideration, with industry to be consulted on the detail. He says the regulator is considering reforms to testing and sampling rules as well as changes to where the products can be used.
In a move long advocated by the waste sector, environment groups and state MPs, the EPA also plans to look at ways to better track and sort waste at its source.
It will also consider a review by the state’s chief scientist which is examining, among other things, whether a “tolerable threshold level” can be set for asbestos in waste intended for beneficial reuse.
In 2022 the watchdog walked away from reforms to practices at waste facilities after opposition from the industry. The questions for the regulator this time are whether it will include consumers of recovered fines products in its consultation, whether it will prioritise public health and the environment and, above all, whether it will actually implement change.
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The state’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, says she supports strengthened regulations and “the only recovered material that should be ending up in our communities should be fully compliant and safe”.
The Greens upper house MP Sue Higginson welcomed the steps towards action last week but criticised the regulator for the amount of time it had taken.
It’s taken a former EPA compliance official speaking out, a news organisation lodging multiple government information public access applications and conducting its own soil testing, and requests for information through parliament to get to this point.
As Jason Scarborough, the former EPA official, said last week, consumers need to have confidence that the recycled products they are buying are safe, environmentally sound and fit for purpose.
There are also signs that this issue extends beyond NSW. Victoria’s EPA announced last week it was launching a “proactive” compliance blitz in response to the problems in NSW.
Recovered fines are also produced by Victorian waste facilities and sold for use in landscaping, sporting fields and residential developments.
Unlike NSW, which has conducted three targeted investigations since 2013, this will be the first in Victoria to specifically look at the products.
We will wait to see the results.