Ann: Envirostream Australia Update, page-5

Envirostream does note WorkSafe Victoria has visited Envirostream’s premises on a number of occasions to inspect the Company’s safety practices and has issued the Company with a number of improvement notices. All of the improvement notices have now been actioned by the Company. Envirostream’s safety culture is a high priority for the Company and it continuously reviews its safety procedures and systems with a view to keeping all its stakeholders safe and improve on its safety record.

Envirostream has been developing industry wide improvements to ensure safety improvements in collection, storage and processing of batteries and to further reduce associated fire risk. During the time Envirostream has been collecting and recycling batteries, it has become apparent that one of the highest fire risks is the incorrect packaging of EOL mixed or lithium ion batteries at collection locations. Whilst Envirostream cannot control the battery packaging from externally managed collections, a number of mitigating strategies have been implemented by the Company at its facilities to reduce the likelihood of a fire, including:

• installation of an early heat detection system and fire detection alarms to its recycling facility with site continuous monitoring,

• the storage of mixed battery types has been changed from steel to plastic containers, with LIB’s processed as a priority to minimize inventories of dangerous goods,

• significantly increasing its mixed battery sorting capacity to allow the safe storage of LIBs,

• following EPA Victoria guidelines for management and storage of combustibles recyclable and waste material,

• process equipment modifications, which include additional cooling water points, procedural changes to safe operating practices and additional operator training to reduce fire risks, and

• actioning risk mitigation advice from Fire Rescue Victoria.

  The biggest challenge for Envirostream is handling mixed batteries collected from its network of collection points. It’s clear that sorting and separation of battery types at these collection points will be difficult if not impossible given the wide range of battery types and the confusion this generates.