Hold on to your oils, paints and aerosols. Photo: Eurobodalla Council.
All three Illawarra councils have called a halt to chemical recycling as a result of a fire at the Cleanaway chemical recycling facility in Sydney.
The fire broke out on 4 February and it took more than 150 firefighters to contain the blaze.
The facility remains closed.
Recycling services at Wollongong City Council, Shellharbour City Council and Kiama Council have all been affected by the closure.
A Wollongong Council spokesperson said it had reached capacity for the collection of gas bottles, water- and oil-based paints, other oils and aerosols.
The spokesperson encouraged everyone who was able to to pause their next chemical drop-off trip to the Community Recycling Centre.
For a regularly updated list of items the Wollongong Community Recycling Centre is able to accept look here.
A Shellharbour City Council spokesperson said the Dunmore recycling facility was only able to accept limited types of chemical waste at the moment.
There is still capacity for residential quantities of batteries, fluoro lights and smoke alarms, although that may change.
No other types of chemical waste can be dropped off.
A Kiama Council spokesperson said the council had temporarily stopped accepting the following items at its recycling centre:
- Light globes and fluorescent tubes
- Aerosols
- Water-based paints
- Oil-based paints
- Motor oils
- Non-motor oils
All three councils said they were in talks with the NSW Environment Protection Authority and Cleanaway to find out when services would resume, and whether this year’s household chemical cleanout (HCC) days would go ahead.
“Cleanaway provides that service on behalf of the NSW EPA,” a Shellharbour City Council spokesperson said.
“All councils just provide a site for them to have the event on the day.
“We don’t have any formal correspondence from the EPA as to whether or not our HCC will be postponed or cancelled. Hopefully service has resumed by then and our event can go ahead as per normal.”
A spokesperson for Cleanaway said the company was working with the EPA to come up with a solution.
“We are working with the EPA on a short-term contingency to take the majority of the high-volume waste streams including water-based paints and gas cylinders,” the Cleanaway spokesperson said.
“In tandem we are also working to ensure there are long-term continuity plans to minimise impacts on collections and disposal.”
Region Illawarra has asked the EPA if there are any other facilities in NSW able to take on chemical recycling. The EPA had not responded at the time of publication.
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