EPA system questioned as number and size of Border tyre stockpiles grow

Warren Tibbitts from tyre recycling and waste company Clean Energy Group has been in Albury over recent weeks to assess sites with clean up notices from the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

He said a stockpile near the Albury airport was particularly concerning, where he said the "very, very large" stockpile may be too much to process before the EPA progressed with legal action.

"They don't have the equipment or the money to clean it up," Mr Tibbits said.

"They have just stockpiled, they have made no effort to do it properly.

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Mr Tibbitts said the profitability of tyre recycling and the complexity of wasting had created a market around their illegal transport and collection.

"The waste tracker system has grossly failed because there is no way anyone can trace where those tyres have come from or where they are going," Mr Tibbitts said. "I have been been processing so many it is unbelievable. Hundreds of thousands of tyres are being dumped.

"Across the whole country it is a huge, huge problem."

Earlier this month the EPA and police raided a property in Jindera where officers found a stockpile of about 10,000 tyres.

The EPA was quick to post online about the raid and the dangers of stockpiling tyres, pointing to its powers to prosecute unlawful conduct.

However, when asked about the airport stockpile the EPA confirmed its notices were to be completed by May 31 2022.

Now one year on, with the Thurgoona stockpile still as large and unsafely stacked as ever, Mr Tibbitts said he was questioning the efficacy of the current system.

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