Sydney facility fire shuts down Lismore recycling centre

LISMORE Council is asking residents to hold off disposing of certain items due to a temporary pause of the Lismore Recycling and Recovery Centre.

A recent fire forced the closure of St Mary’s Cleanaway’s recycling facility in Sydney and caused significant delays and disruptions in collecting household waste at community recycling centres across NSW.

The St Mary’s facility is a key processing site for household problem waste.

Due to limited storage at the Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre, it is unable to receive items such as batteries (including embedded battery products), light globes, oils, gas cylinders, fire extinguishers, aerosols, smoke detectors, and paints.

The disruption also affects the Community Recycling Station drop-off cabinets at the Council’s Corporate Centre, Lismore Library and Nimbin Transfer Station.

On February 7, three days after the recent fire, Cleanaway was convicted and fined $300,000 for breaching Commonwealth work health and safety laws over a fire in April 2022.

The event left a worker with serious injuries and took several hours to contain, with more than 130 firefighters deployed to the scene.

NSW EPA has begun investigating the cause of the February 4 fire, and Cleanaway has been issued a clean-up notice requiring it to address onsite issues and potential offsite impacts of the fire.

The NSW EPA has advised residents to store household problem waste safely in a cool, dry place away from children and pets until services resume.

For information and updates, visit lismore.nsw.gov.au/Households/Waste-and-recycling/Our-waste-facilities