EPA Financial Assurances
Dr Elizabeth Gibson, General Manager CMPA and Matt Skidmore, General Manager City Circle Group provided the CMPA submission to EPA’s Draft Methods for Calculating Financial Assurance for Bulk Storage, Onsite Soil Retention and Waste and Resource Recovery.
EPA was thanked for the opportunity to comment on the Draft Methods for Calculating Financial Assurance for Bulk Storage, Onsite Soil Retention and Waste and Resource Recovery (Consultation paper). The CMPA is a member of the EPA Construction Sector Consultation Group and the EPA Resources, Energy and Extraction Sector Consultation Group.
The Victorian Construction and Demolition (C&D) inert waste recycling industry is proud of its contribution to the circular economy with many of our members being at the forefront of product development and reuse of construction materials across the country; these businesses are pioneers
in the industry and in business for decades.
The CMPA supports the principle of responsible, balanced legislation that is in the best interests of the State of Victoria and Australia including the protection of resources that enable extraction of resources and processing of C&D waste that is cost efficient to market and to the Victorian taxpayer,
who is ultimately the end consumer and beneficiary of this resource.
Submission
The CMPA supports the inclusion of the following text in the final Methods for Calculating Financial Assurance for Bulk Storage, Onsite Soil Retention and Waste and Resource Recovery:
“Certain facilities, such as those processing for recycling purposes paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks or concrete, where there are operation processes in place to minimise contaminants, will not be required to provide financial assurances to the EPA.”
Conclusion
The construction and demolition waste recycling industry including paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks or concrete is a vibrant long-established industry producing seven million tonnes of saleable product per annum in Victoria, thereby diverting construction and demolition waste from landfill.
Discussion
CMPA has had extensive interaction with the EPA (Lee Miezis, former CEO and Duncan Pendrigh, former Director Regulatory Services) regarding the EPA Financial Assurance Calculator for paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks or concrete, C&D waste.
Potential financial assurances are an ongoing concern for the viability of the industry and given the wording of the Consultation paper, many sites have their outcomes left open to the interpretation of the paper.
The EPA’s view on the issue, detailed in a letter dated 24 March 2023, to the CMPA (attached to submission) where it was noted that facilities recycling paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks and concrete would be “unlikely” to require a financial assurance.
The attached letter from the EPA concerning this interaction, deemed the visited sites as low risk and not requiring Financial Assurance.
The CMPA would request that the wording be changed to reflect this view in the updated Consultation paper.
Communications were also held recently with the EPA as per attached email 30 January 2026.
“There has been no change to the EPA’s view in the letter of March 2023, and the proposed modifications to the calculation method in publication 2003 also does not impact this view and our current approach to considering the need for financial assurance.”
“As discussed today, we would appreciate your thoughts on any additional wording you feel may be helpful in the publication to clarify the use of the current calculation method, and proposed modifications.”
The Consultation paper required further clarification to ensure clarity in the incorporation of the intent of the EPA letter received 24 March 2023 with the following supported:
“Certain facilities, such as those processing for recycling purposes paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks or concrete, where there are operation processes in place to minimise contaminants, will not be required to provide financial assurances to the EPA.”
Below is an extract from the letter received from the EPA dated 24 March 2023.
Financial Assurance for Waste and Resource Recovery Facilities (A13a and A13b permission activities).
“Thank you for arranging our visits to CMPA member sites in late 2022 which allowed the EPA to observe the nature of the waste and resource recovery activities undertaken at these premises. EPA also visited a similar CCAA member facility in early 2023.
The purpose of the site visits was to obtain a better understanding of the waste and resource recovery operations conducted by your members, to assist EPA in its consideration of the need for financial assurance to be required in the Environment Protection Regulations 2021 – A13a and A13b
permissions for these activities. Of particular interest were the types of wastes processed at the sites and the operational controls to minimise contamination content in accepted wastes.
Our view from the site visits is that certain facilities, such as those processing for recycling purposes paddock rock, asphalt, tiles, bricks or concrete where there are operational processes in place to minimise contaminants, are unlikely to be required to provide a financial assurance to EPA. Nevertheless, EPA will still undertake site-specific assessments of the need for financial assurance for each A13a or A13b permission application and have regard to the risk assessment criteria outlined in the Environment Protection Regulations 2021.
Facilities which stockpile glass waste but do not reprocess this waste onsite, will be carefully considered by EPA as to the quantities stored and contaminant levels, as this may impact our assessment of the need for financial assurance.
EPA is about to commence a program of work on the financial assurance framework which includes developing an alternative calculation methodology for waste and resource recovery facilities. We propose to include in this consideration of the method developed by CMPA and liaise with you during this project.
It was also noted during our inspection that not all facilities may have submitted (or determined the need to submit) applications for A13a or A13b permissions to the EPA permissioning team as they were required to do by 1 October 2021. We recommend that this need be highlighted with your members, and any queries be raised with the permissioning team.”
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