An illegal shipment of waste tyres has been intercepted. This is part of our efforts to detect and stop waste crime.
Our compliance officers and the Australian Border Force (ABF) worked together to detect and inspect 10 shipping containers in Sydney and found around 280 tonnes of incorrectly processed tyres.
The waste was bound for Malaysia and contained non-compliant baled waste tyres and bags of shredded waste tyre pieces.
The tyres did not comply with the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act or the rules for exporting waste tyres.
Exporters of waste tyres must hold a license and ensure waste tyres are processed properly before export. The exporter is a waste export licence holder.
The exporter has been ordered to collect the containers from the site and may be liable to pay costs for container collection, detention, inspection, and transport. Costs could exceed $30,000. The exporter may need to pay additional costs to process the tyres to the legal standard.
Since 2021, we have worked with the ABF to intercept 61 containers of non-compliant tyres across 14 shipments. That's 1,700 tonnes of waste tyres that could have been dumped overseas and caused harm to the environment and human health.
We take compliance seriously and will act on breaches of waste export laws, including conducting investigations and taking enforcement actions where necessary. Strong penalties apply if you do not meet the requirements of the law and licence conditions.
Penalties can include:
- applying additional license conditions
- suspending or revoking licenses
- civil penalties up to $198,000 for an individual or $990,000 for a company
- up to 5 years imprisonment.
You can report a breach of environmental law online or call 1800 920 528.
