17/03/2026
The companies that (if approved) will deliver the proposed 'Parkes Energy Recovery' energy from waste incinerator project are Cleanaway, Tadweer (part of ADQ, a sovereign wealth fund of the Abu Dhabi Government) and Tribe (an advisory and investment practice).
Cleanaway, an Australian waste company, have faced repeated regulatory action over environmental compliance and workplace safety. Tragically, since the article linked below in 2020, eight workers have died on Cleanaway’s premises since mid-2022.
They are currently trying to branch out and build large scale energy from waste (EfW) facilities in NSW, Victoria and Queensland despite a global downturn in the construction of new EfW facilities and increased regulatory pressure from governments.
They withdrew a State Significant Development application to build an energy from waste incinerator in Western Sydney following the 2022 regulation that banned EfW facilities in Greater Sydney. They currently have proposals in Parkes, Wollert in Victoria and Bromelton in Queensland.
This Financial Review article from 2020 gives an insight into their environmental and workplace safety practices (not just the medical waste handling in the title and first part of the story).
From the story:
"Another employee familiar with the Victorian operations said the liquids division of the business would "routinely" take product in excess of Cleanaway's license restrictions and would thus be unable to process the waste.
"The company would be sitting at well over its EPA license limit. They weren't allowed to process it till the following month. So the waste would sit in the caustic plant, which would be overflowing."
In August, the NSW EPA blasted Cleanaway's self-professed "zero harm" safety philosophy after calling into question the "management of its operations" and the approach and knowledge of employees about environmental safety, following an inspection blitz of 26 sites that revealed issues in all but one.
The NSW watchdog slapped the company with a raft of licence conditions, show cause notices, warning letters and advisory letters after uncovering "consistent areas of concern", alerting other state-based environmental regulators to the company's compliance culture.
The Australian Financial Review can reveal the Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has "some active investigations" into Cleanaway in WA.
"As the matters are under investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further," a WA DWER spokesman said.
"The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation liaises with its counterparts across Australia on a range of issues. If DWER is investigating a specific matter it may liaise with the environmental department in another state to further the investigation."
A spokesman for EPA Victoria said the regulator was working with "counterparts in other jurisdictions to share regulatory intelligence".
"EPA will continue to take a strong enforcement approach and make use of all our available regulatory tools," said EPA Victoria, which has issued Cleanaway with five infringement notices and given five official warnings since mid-2018.
A spokesman for the Queensland Department of Environment and Science said the state government was "aware of matters raised by NSW EPA regarding Cleanaway".
"Queensland’s environmental regulator, the Department of Environment and Science engages regularly with other state regulators around Australia, including NSW."
According to confidential documents outlining the NSW EPA's findings, two Cleanaway sites with the most serious infractions arising from the June blitz received warning letters. One was Gunnedah Road in Tamworth Regional Council, where containers were found to be holding "unidentified waste", waste drums were "damaged, in poor condition and show[ing] signs of leakage", and water from an oil separator was "reporting to stormwater".
The other, at Raffles Glade Eastern Creek in Blacktown City Council, was found to have debris in stormwater drains, "numerous pools of liquid throughout the warehouse", bins designed to capture waste "full and overflowing", hydraulic oil stored near stormwater drains, and bulk containers "damaged" but holding liquid waste.
Cleanaway is proposing to build a facility that converts waste to energy in Blacktown City Council, which is subject to a NSW Department of Planning review.
"Council will ensure that the best interests of the health and wellbeing of our residents are uppermost in council’s considerations," a spokesman for Blacktown City Council said.
Last week, 90 per cent of major institutional shareholders in Cleanaway backed the board over its handling of at least four formal whistleblowing complaints alleging bullying conduct against chief executive Vik Bansal.
Mr Bansal has overseen a 300 per cent increase in the company's share price, but his "overly-assertive" management style has put him at odds with employees, who have said they cannot escalate bad news up the chain of responsibility out of a fear of reprisal.
Victoria police had been called to both the company's St Kilda Road headquarters and its Perry Road Office and Collections Depot in Dandenong South earlier this year after employees raised concerns they were asked to work from the office during the coronavirus pandemic.
Following an investigation into the company by the Financial Review, which has found the company’s plan to overhaul its IT system to push workers into negative annual leave balances during the coronavirus pandemic also may have breached the Fair Work Act 2009, the federal government’s workplace health and safety watchdog Comcare has opened an investigation into the business.
Current and former Cleanaway employees have said Mr Bansal's behaviour is the chief cause of a high rate of turnover in senior and lower-level employees, including the departure of a half-dozen employees who filled the group's head of health and safety role over the past four years.
Almost every senior manager for health and safety at each of Cleanaway's business units has changed over the last 12 months, including one senior woman who had her employment terminated a week before she was due to go on maternity leave."
Footage shows Cleanaway Waste Management's Victorian frontline workers transfer medical waste without protective wear at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
