cleanaway's compliance record

Cleanaway's Compliance Record

One of the requirements for this proposal to be accepted is for Cleanaway to be a proper person to build and operate this incinerator. The threshold for this licence, which will lock the Scenic Rim into decades of operation, with potentially shocking outcomes from breaches of operating practice, needs to be much higher than for a general and specific waste collection and transportation.

A DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF NON-COMPLIANCE WITH

REPEATED ISSUES MANAGING LANDFILL SITES,
WORKPLACE BULLYING AND DEATHS

Eight workers have died on Cleanaway’s premises since mid-2022

Significant Cleanaway fires increased from one in FY24 to three in FY25

Received the highest penalty ever handed down under the QLD EPA
for an environmental odour nuisance offence

Received the highest penalty ever of $1.1M imposed

under federal work health and safety laws

MAY 2026 The SA Supreme Court has ordered Cleanaway to pay a $1.1M fine for workplace failure that led to a double fatal crash in Adelaide in August 2014. The accident also left the driver with life-changing injuries. The penalty is the largest ever imposed under federal work health and safety laws.

MAY 2026 The Victorian Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) over a $6.9M landfill levy underpayment claim for FY18. Additional EPA audits have highlighted further alleged underpayments of $4.7M for FY19 and $7.2M for FY22. These additional years are not yet subject to court proceedings and figures exclude costs and interest.

DEC 2025 The number of fatalities, as well as increases in other serious and reportable injuries, led to a board decision to cut executive bonuses by 30% in the previous financial year. This included chief executive, Mark Schubert, who lost around $500K, however, he was still paid some $4.2 million for the year, including cash bonuses and equity rights.

NOV 2024 Cleanaway fined over $600K, the highest penalty ever handed down under the QLD EPA for an environmental odour nuisance offence. Also committed other offences at the Ipswich site, including unlawfully pumping contaminated water around its site and unlawfully using that water for dust suppression.

MAR 2026 The NSW EPA opens investigation on similar odour issues at Cleanaway’s Sydney landfill site (as seen on ACA).

FEB 2025 Convicted and fined $300K for breaching Commonwealth work health and safety laws over a Sydney fire in April 2022 that left a worker with serious injuries.

FEB 2024 The TWU awarded Cleanaway the ‘Worst Employer of 2023’ at its Delegates Conference. Not only had they made outrageous attempts to undermine the pay and conditions of workers, but their stalling of negotiations resulted in over 10 Protected Industrial Actions which occurred across NSW, as well as a significant number of safety risks and severe worker shortages.

JUNE 2023 Cleanaway charged with breaching federal work health and safety laws over an incident that injured a Canberra worker in a waste and recycling depot in Hume. (Category 2 criminal offence under the WHS Act. A worker’s hand was caught in a machine that compresses cardboard and plastics into bales while performing routine maintenance. He was treated in hospital for multiple fractures and lacerations to fingers.

FEB 2023 Workplace death at Cleanaway's Badgery Creek depot is under investigation by a NSW safety regulator after a worker was discovered ‘wedged between machinery’.

SEP 2023 EPA Victoria issue three fines to Cleanaway totalling nearly $30K for transporting waste hand sanitizer without properly logging its movement. A further $9K fine was issued to one of its transport contractors, DSS Investments (Aust) Pty Ltd, for the same offence.

APRIL 2023 'Treated horrifically', Cleanaway waste workers stage fifth protest in four months over working conditions and pay dispute. Waste workers have held their fifth protest in the space of four months as they continue their dispute against major waste management company Cleanaway over working conditions and wages.

DEC 2022 A Boxing Day fire at the Hume ACT facility, caused by thermal runaway from lithium-ion battery contamination, swept through the site, rendering the Cleanaway facility no longer suitable for processing recycled material.

APRIL 2022 NSW EPA fined Cleanaway $617K after it twice leaked kerosene solvent into the stormwater system and the Molonglo River in Queenbeyan in 2020, and failed to notify. Also ordered to pay the EPA’s investigation and legal costs of $110,778.

NOV 2020 Cleanaway subsidiary companies have previously been subject to EPA action with a $15K fine for alleged waste storage offences at Rutherford and a $1,500 fine for alleged poor record keeping at a South Windsor premises.

OCT 2020 Cleanaway safety claims blasted by NSW EPA Across an array of sites, Cleanaway was found by the EPA to be storing waste in damaged containers, incorrectly labelling waste and stacking it in precarious positions, while allowing liquid waste to form ponds and potentially pollute waters.

APR 2017 Cleanaway issued a fine of $650K for a 2013 fire at their Port Adelaide chemical waste processing facility in which a worker was seriously burned. The sentencing judge accused Cleanaway of initiating a trial process despite giving workers limited information about the trial and the new chemical involved. Largest fine ever handed out at a Comcare-initiated prosecution. Cleanaway pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing in its duty to ensure the health and safety of workers under the Commonwealth WHS Act.

MAY 2015 Cleanaway (then Transpacific) fined $363K for negligent behaviour and breaching federal WHS laws following a fatal accident in Perth where a company truck crashed into a 71-year-old driver in 2011. Comcare’s investigations revealed systematic failures in maintenance practices. 

AUG 2014 Cleanaway sewage tanker truck collided with many cars at the lower part of the South Eastern Freeway, killing two people. Following the accident the company pulled 2,800 trucks from service for inspections, disrupting waste collections for days.



Key References:

[1] Decision regarding historical MRL landfill levies

[2] Cleanaway safety record: Executive bonuses cut after multiple deaths at waste facilities

[3] Record waste odour fine sees $190k flow to Ipswich council - Inside Local Government

[4] Company fined over Sydney fire, injuries | Comcare

[5] PROFITS OVER PEOPLE: CLEANAWAY'S GAINS COME AT THE COST OF WORKERS - Transport Workers’ Union NSW

[6] Cleanaway charged over Canberra WHS incident | Comcare

[7] WASTE WORKER STRIKES LOOM ACROSS AUSTRALIA OVER CLEANAWAY’S ATTACKS TO PAY AND CONDITIONS - Transport Workers’ Union

[8] Cleanaway fined 30k over waste hand sanitizer movement - Inside Waste

[9] 'Treated horrifically': Cleanaway waste workers stage fifth protest in four months over working conditions and pay dispute | Sky News Australia

[10] Comcare investigation brings charge against Cleanaway after incident at Hume facility | Region Canberra

[11] https://citynews.com.au/2022/cleanaway-cops-fine-for-polluting-river/

Cleanaway ordered to pay $600,000 in fines | Mirage News

[12] https://www.afr.com/companies/manufacturing/cleanaway-safety-claims-blasted-by-nsw-epa-20201010-p563wy

[13] Cleanaway - Wikipedia

[14] BIG FINE FOR CLEANAWAY AFTER WORKER INJURED BECAUSE OF CHEMICAL FIRE

Cleanaway cops $650k fine over Adelaide chemical fire | Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions


[15] Waste company gets record $363,000 fine over fatal Perth truck crash - ABC News

+++MANY references FROM CLEANAWAY’S WIKIPEDIA PAGE