Weird fumes, fires and machinery operating late at night have been reported by dozens of residents near a troubled scrapyard at the centre of claims that Australia’s biggest battery recycler is burning or dumping millions of batteries instead of recycling them.
Major supermarkets and retailers which host Ecobatt collection bins were seeking answers on Thurday after an investigation by this masthead revealed that Ecocycle is facing allegations of “systemic and routine” malpractice and has been evading the audits that would shed light on its recycling practices.
Ecocycle and its sister company Recycal have denied processing any of the batteries they collect from their network of 6000 Ecobatt bins around Australia at the facility in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood.
But former employees of the companies have described large quantities of batteries being burned in a furnace there. Photographs show charred batteries at the facility and data from concealed AirTags suggest batteries were being diverted to the site.
A spokesperson for Coles said the company was working to “seek clarity and answers” from the Battery Stewardship Council (BSC), the government-backed agency responsible for overseeing the national B-Cycle battery recycling scheme.
“We support efforts to make battery recycling safer and more accessible for customers, and we expect all parties involved in the scheme to meet the required standards for responsible collection, handling and recycling,” a Coles spokesperson said.
Aldi said it was also seeking clarification from the BSC about the allegations against Ecocycle.
“Our expectation is that all recycling partners operate in accordance with applicable standards and regulations,” an Aldi spokesperson said.
The Battery Stewardship Council said its investigations into the claims against Ecocycle were ongoing and it had engaged a third party to audit the company’s battery processing claims.
“Australians across every state and territory rely on the B-cycle Scheme to recycle batteries safely and responsibly,” the council’s chief executive Libby Chaplin said in a statement.
“BSC maintains continuity and contingency planning across its national network so that no single operator can compromise ongoing access to battery recycling services.”
Ecocycle said on Thurday that it “strongly rejects suggestions that batteries collected through its national network are intentionally disposed of outside regulated and approved processes.”
The company has collected just over 10,000 tonnes of batteries from around the country since the B-Cycle scheme started in 2022.
Public submissions to a proposal by Recycal to expand its Ringwood facility last year cite many examples of excessive noise and fumes at the scrapyard, and allege industrial shredders were operating at odd hours that were apparently not permitted under the company’s operating permit.
“It is noisy, loud, operates at all hours and it smells,” said one submission from a resident near the site on Heatherdale Road in Ringwood.
“The past history of this recycler is horrific, and the fact that [its] compliance with regulations is nil,” said another. “People suffered financially, moving instead of being daily subjected to this noise, air pollution.”
“I could hear it from my house and couldn’t sit outside due to the noise and smells,” another said.
Numerous submissions mentioned fumes from the industrial furnace on the site, and said it had been afflicted by several fires in the past decade, including one that burned for several days.
They were concerned about the proximity of a primary school and a childcare centre a few hundred metres away.
Fire and Rescue Victoria would not comment on how many times it attended blazes at the facility, though a 2021 press release from the organisation said 28 firefighters had put out a “significant fire” at the scrapyard in October of that year.
Despite the overwhelming public opposition to Recycal’s proposed expansion of the Ringwood facility, Victoria’s Environment Protection in February granted the company a conditional operating licence to process e-waste at the site.
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