Banksia Road Waste Management facility ex-employee lifts lid on alleged happenings amid expansion saga

A former employee at Dardanup’s Banksia Road Waste Management Facility has lifted the lid on the alleged happenings at the facility as its operator continues its request to expand operations. Lance O’Dea worked for Cleanaway at the facility but resigned about three years ago after not feeling comfortable with aspects of the facility’s operation. It comes as the waste management company continues to make its bid to expand the Banksia Road facility by increasing the maximum waste cell height from 114m AHD to 151m AHD, which had recently been refused by the Shire of Dardanup. Mr O’Dea said a number of employees raised concerns, including alleged licence breaches and safety issues, but felt they had been dismissed without any substantial outcome. “The job itself, I would happily go back to doing today,” he said. “It was just the way things were being run at the facility, I could not agree with morally and I just couldn’t continue working there anymore.” Mr O’Dea noted a number of alleged happenings at the facility that were not in line with the operation licence such as bringing tyres into the facility, not clearing asbestos properly and rubbish allegedly not being sorted into the appropriate waste cells. “There’s not supposed to be any tyres going into that landfill at all but it was a regular occurrence,” he said. “The licence also explained how workers are supposed to treat asbestos but it was not actually dealt with properly. “I did a lot of the maintenance on the machines and when the fires happened in Yarloop, most of the waste that was brought in was asbestos-affected and we were running machines on them without any air-conditioning with the doors open, no masks and no suits. “At the end of the day we were blowing all of the air filters off the machines for the next day and there was just this asbestos everywhere. “I was also instructed to tip off some dirt on a bank that was way above the required grade and then I got a written warning about it.” Mr O’Dea said truck drivers were allegedly given keys to the facility, allowing them to dump their rubbish at any time, including overnight hours. “Compactor trucks were coming down from Perth bringing rubbish at all hours of the night,” he said. “If there was a fire or something went wrong, there’s nobody there to help them out because the facility itself was closed.” Mr O’Dea attended the Shire of Dardanup’s recent council meeting and watched as councillors unanimously voted to refuse Cleanaway’s request. He said he was “impressed” by what happened during the council meeting. “Finally someone is actually listening, even if it’s only a little bit, about how bad things are out there,” he said. A spokesperson for Cleanaway told the Bunbury Herald the company has “a number of controls” in place at the facility and strictly adheres to operating hours. “It should be noted that the operating hours for the Dardanup facility are 6am-6pm, which are strictly adhered to including locking off the entry and exit gate,” they said. “Last truck across the weighbridge is 5pm giving operations enough time to close off the cell each day. “In relation to the litter, Cleanaway has a number of controls in place, namely a full-time litter picker who start each day with an inspection of Banksia and Depiazzi roads, the use of ACTIV Foundation staff post high wind events if required, and three lines of defence in terms of litter fencing.”