Companies holding tens of thousands of tonnes of waste on behalf of recycling group SKM have been told they will not receive any assistance from a multimillion-dollar state government loan aimed at helping clean up SKM sites, and say the material they are holding may end up in landfill.
This week, the Victorian government announced a $10m loan to receivers KordaMentha to “help clean up SKM sites and resume waste processing”.
The loan is aimed at helping clear up stockpiles and to get SKM’s plants up and running. Laverton will be the first to resume processing next month, and Hallam, Geelong and Coolaroo are expected to follow.
But for the estimated 60,000 tonnes of rubbish across several sites rented by SKM, the landowners have been told they will have to deal with it themselves.
“The $10m in funding from the state government is to allow the resumption of processing from kerbside recycling and is not being used for the clean-up of third party sites like yours,” Nick Gill, a director at KordaMentha, told one of the landowners, Marwood Constructions.
“You may be able to recover the cost of cleaning up the site under the terms of the lease; however if so, these would most likely form an unsecured claim against SKM Corporate.”
Marwood Constructions alone holds about 10,000 tonnes of SKM waste, one-third of it being rubbish that will need to go to landfill. The lease had been valued at more than $1m a year, but the waste is now sitting there rent-free and has been left for the landowners to deal with.
Marwood Constructions’ project co-ordinator, Carly Whitington told Guardian Australia it was “extremely surprising” to be advised that they were responsible for SKM’s waste, because they thought it was still owned by SKM.
She said the company wanted the government to help find a solution, failing which the 10,000 tonnes would eventually be destined for landfill.
“We hope they will be the white knight at the end of the day and do the correct thing,” she said.
“We’re losing a monthly rent, and it’s really stressful when you’ve got an environmental risk, you’ve got a fire risk. It’s not a good position to be in.”
A KordaMentha spokesman confirmed that the landowners would not receive funds from the loan.
“The government money is to clear the backlog of waste at the SKM facilities at Coolaroo and Laverton so the company can resume kerbside collections,” he said in an email to Guardian Australia.
“The clearing began this morning and will continue 24/7 for two to four weeks until the processing plants can be turned on again … SKM kerbside collection [will] resume at 50% of previous levels by the end of September and then build from there.”
A Victorian government spokeswoman said: “We’ll work with KordaMentha, any prospective purchaser of the former SKM recycling business and landlords of SKM’s leased sites to facilitate the recovery or disposal of material stored in warehouses.”
An interim report from a Victorian parliamentary inquiry on waste management this week found that companies such as SKM had put emergency services personnel at risk because of the over-stockpiling of waste that had caused a fire at SKM’s Coolaroo plant.
The garbage company Cleanaway has been put in the box seat to take over SKM’s operations.
