The company in charge of recycling Stawell’s nine million strong type pile said the state government had them working at a snail’s pace. 

 Chief executive Matthew Starr said he was extremely frustrated with the Victorian Government.

“If we had more government support we’d be able to get rid of all the tyres within 12 to 18 months of starting,” he said. 

“We’re not even in a position to build the factory or processing plant yet. We have to wait on the government’s revegetation timelines – we have no control over it.”

Since tyre shredding resumed in July the company has been unable to recycle the tyres or turn the process into electricity.

“All we can do is shred and put them in 40 foot shipping containers,” Mr Starr said. 

“We’re up to 10 already. It’s unacceptable to us. We don’t want to shred and store, we want to process so the problem is completely eliminated. It’s very frustrating to be put in a position where we have to move so slowly.”

Mr Starr said the tyre pile was a massive risk to Wimmera lives and livelihood. 

“If it was to catch fire it would cause up to $2 billion in damages and tens of thousand of people would be evacuated for one or two years,” he said.

Mr Starr said Northern Grampians Shire Council and the Environmental Protection Agency have been nothing but supportive. 

Northern Grampians mayor Murray Emerson said the council would address issues around the project to their state and federal counterparts. “They are reducing the pile but very, very slowly,” he said. “It’d be much better from a local government point of view if it could be sped up a bit.” 

Mr Starr said he has invested $1.5 million into the site already, but with the current bureaucracy has no idea when the tyres would be gone. 

“How long is a piece of string?” he said.

“We’ve done major solar projects in Queensland and the government bent over backwards to help. We came down here and it’s all too hard – it’s problem after problem after problem.”

EPA North West Team Leader of Field Operations Danny Childs said the company complies with requirements set out in three notices issued. 

“To meet the requirements of the notices UTRC must reduce the risk of fire at the premises through the installation of firefighting infrastructure measures and further segregate the large tyre stockpile into smaller piles,” he said.

 “EPA also requires the company to conduct a staged removal of tyres from the premises under statutory notice.”

Mr Childs said the authority, shire and other relevant bodies are working with UTRC in order to reduce the fire risk at the premises and ensure that any future operations at the premises meet the required Victorian legislation and standards.