South Geelong equipment hire company Hoare Bros. Pty Ltd has been fined $5,928 by EPA Victoria for failing to comply with the terms of one of its notices and faces further penalties if it doesn't remove excessive numbers of waste tyres stored on one of its properties.
An EPA investigation showed excessive storage of waste tyres at the company's Stonehaven property. Further EPA inspections and a drone flight determined that the volume of waste tyres exceeded 10,000 equivalent passenger units (EPUs) and required an EPA registration.
For fire risk and environmental safety reasons, the registration only allows for up to 5,000 passenger tyres to be stored at a premises, provided they are stored in a manner that minimises the risk of harm to the environment, and excess tyres would have to be disposed of to a place that can legally accept them.
Hoare Bros was required to report on their progress but failed to meet the deadline leading to the fine.
EPA South-West Regional Manager Arun Baskaran says the company was given plenty of opportunity to do the right thing.
"Hoare Bros first received a notice to reduce the volume of waste tyres in December 2023. Over a year later, the company still hasn't complied with the notices and hasn't reported to EPA, so they have been fined," he said.
"The regulatory notice from EPA requires the company to remove the excess waste tyres on the property and take them to a lawful place," Mr. Baskaran said.
"Illegally stored waste tyres pose a fire risk and waste tyre producers must understand and control the risk. A waste tyre fire is toxic to human health and can cause catastrophic harm to the environment.
"The company will still be required to reduce the waste tyre stockpile to comply with their EPA registration."
