THE SITE IS APPROVED TO INITIALLY RECEIVE, BALE AND TRANSFER 3,000 TONNES OF MINGLED AGRICULTURAL PLASTICS EVERY YEAR
These are not clean packaging materials
Farm plastics arrive at the site at the end of their working life — heavily soiled and carrying mud, organic matter, crop residues and other contamination from agricultural use.
They would be received as mingled waste, not sorted into clean, separate material streams.
At Roseworthy, this mingled and contaminated material would be collected, stored outside in open skips and bulked for onward transfer, with no clearly defined maximum period for how long it may remain on site.
Contaminated Agricultural Plastics (Illustrative)
Yet the application says remarkably little about how this contaminated waste stream will actually be managed.
It does not explain how many skips may be present at any one time, how long material may remain on site if onward transport is delayed, or what operational controls apply during prolonged outdoor storage.
For a separate industrial waste stream handling thousands of tonnes of contaminated agricultural plastics every year, so close to homes, vulnerable waterways and food-producing farmland, those omissions are striking.
Exposed to rainfall, strong winds and changing temperatures, contaminated material stored in the open raises obvious concerns about runoff, leachate, odour, vermin and what may ultimately be washed from those wastes into the site’s drainage system, and blown beyond the site boundaries.
THE PLASTICS ARE NOT THE CONCERN.
THE CONTAMINATION THEY CARRY IS.
BUT THE CONTAMINATION PATHWAY DOES NOT END AT ROSEWORTHY.
Loading, storing, bulking, reloading and transporting thousands of tonnes of dirty agricultural plastics creates further risk pathways by which contaminants and residues may be transferred and dispersed to everyone and everything along the way.
The application does not mention the onward transfer process, where this material will ultimately go, or what treatment or disposal awaits it once it eventually leaves the site.
These plastics may leave Roseworthy. What they carry travels with them.
